‘Are you from Western Ukraine?’ Patriarch Kirill ridicules priest for criticizing the Russian Orthodox Church’s ‘patriotic’ turn
A Russian Orthodox priest dared to publicly challenge church leader Patriarch Kirill on the institution’s growing embrace of patriotism — and was swiftly shut down. At a diocesan meeting, Father Alexey Shlyapin questioned whether patriotism was replacing faith. But while Shlyapin opposes bringing support for the war into the church, his reasoning comes from an unusual place. A follower of fundamentalist teachings that echo those of radical American Protestants, he believes in “heavenly citizenship” above any earthly loyalties.
Patriarch Kirill, a staunch Putin ally and unwavering supporter of the war in Ukraine, recently got some pushback in his own backyard. In a video reportedly filmed on February 11 at a diocesan meeting of the Moscow Metropolis, Father Alexey Shlyapin, a priest from the town of Mozhaysk, criticized the growing “patriotic trend” within the Russian Orthodox Church.
“A priest’s duty is to lead people to the Kingdom of Heaven, not to engage in patriotism,” Shlyapin says in a recording of the exchange, published by journalist Ksenia Luchenko, who writes about the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Well, that’s something, isn’t it?” Patriarch Kirill mocks him in response. “I’ve never heard that before! Tell me, Father, you’re not from Western Ukraine, by any chance?” The hall fills with the sound of laughter and applause. “Go sit down and seriously reflect on what you just blurted out,” Kirill concludes.
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Shlyapin is a follower of Daniel Sysoev, a fundamentalist priest who was shot dead in his church in 2009. Luchenko notes that Sysoev’s followers hold views similar to those of radical American Protestants — creationism, staunch pro-birth advocacy, and aggressive missionary work among non-Orthodox communities. Sysoev, she adds, “was heavily involved in converting Muslims to Christianity.”
Yet, according to Luchenko, Sysoev’s literal interpretation of scripture also led him to develop uranopolitism, the theological concept of “heavenly citizenship,” which he saw as a direct alternative to patriotism.
Shlyapin has embraced and expanded on this idea. “A Christian defends specific people — his neighbors,” Luchenko quotes him as saying. “The Lord did not give a commandment to love people in general, nor to love nations, a country, a homeland, or a fatherland. […] A patriot, in defending the fatherland, substitutes one for the other.”
Patriarch Kirill, for his part, has been one of the most vocal religious supporters of Russia’s war against Ukraine. From the start of the full-scale invasion, he has framed the war as a “metaphysical struggle,” urged clergy to “mobilize parishioners” in support of the Russian army, and declared that Russia is “holding back the coming of the Antichrist.” Members of the Russian Orthodox Church who have defied his pro-war stance have lost their jobs and even been defrocked.
Cover photo: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA