MOSCOW: A Russian Orthodox bishop on Thursday lashed out at church officials for insulting the feelings of believers, and accused them in a letter posted on several Web sites of retreating from the "purity" of the Orthodox faith.In a rare protest from within the tightly hierarchical church, Bishop Diomid and four of his subordinates criticized the Moscow Patriarchate for what he described as inappropriate efforts toward ecumenism — or greater cooperation with other faiths.
In an open letter published on several Orthodox Web sites, the bishop also criticized the church's central office for supporting democracy, globalization and "anti-people policies" of President Vladimir Putin's government.
"At the present time, in the Moscow Patriarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, of which we are members, there are a number of retreats from the purity of Orthodox teachings," Diomid wrote.
The ongoing "growing spiritual accommodation that subordinates the power of the church to secular power, which is often iconoclastic, harms God-awarded freedom," he said.
In an interview Thursday with Ekho Moskvy radio, the bishop, who is based in the far eastern province of Chukotka, said that "sometimes the actions of the church insult the feelings of believers."
Church officials dismissed Diomid's statement as a provocation, and appeared to suggest some other forces were behind his protest.
"It isn't Bishop Diomid who played the main role here, but a different group of people, who are still in the shadow, but I hope they will be taken out of this shadow and their provocation exposed," Metropolitan Kirill, the church's top spokesman, said in televised comments.
Senior Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Viglyansky said the questions raised in the statement have long been discussed by the church, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Diomid's letter also charged that a summit of religious leaders organized last year by the Orthodox Church resulted in pledges to protect peace in the name of the God, which he interpreted as attempts at unification of all religions.
"We don't believe that we have a common Almighty with the Jews, the Muslims and other religions and teachings," he wrote.
Some experts said the statement was part of a continuing debate over the upcoming reunification of the main church and the breakaway Russian Orthodox church-in-exile.
The emigre church cut all ties with its parent in 1927, after the patriarch at that time issued a declaration of loyalty to the Soviet Union's atheistic government. Talk of re-establishing ties began after the Soviet collapse in 1991, and the formal reconciliation is to take place in May.
The Orthodox Church has experienced a major resurgence after the 1991 Soviet collapse ended decades of state atheism.
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