INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Amid snow-covered trees in eastern Moscow, a group of clergymen leads a prayer service to honor an upcoming church dedicated to those who
statue devoted to soldiers who fell in the Afghan war.These scenes aired in late November on the state-run Rossia 1 broadcaster took place
need a church in every apartment! Our country is famous for accepting all religions, sure
the priest needs somewhere to live
in 2012, 2015 and 2016, but the local community managed to halt the project each time, residents told The Moscow Times.A rally against the
Afghan Park development in 2019 collected 1,200 signatures.vao-mos.infoGrassroots resistance against the development of parks and other
length and about 200 meters in width, has previously had military connotations
Locally known as Afgansky Park because of annual gatherings commemorating the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the initial plan
and religious leaders have started to present the project as the primary memorial cathedral for veterans of all military conflicts
The church is backed by the Moscow government as well as lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee and a
protections have recently been weakened in favor of developers
projects of Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill.Launched in 2011, the program initially aimed for 200 new churches to be built in
residential districts, a number that had increased to over 500 by 2021.Between 2011 and 2023, the total number of Orthodox churches in
that the construction benefits the city by creating new areas for recreation and walks.A prayer service to inaugurate the construction of
the church, November 2023.hram-gireevo.ruThese ambitious plans in some cases result in conflicts when authorities and developers overlook
local residents' opinions
This was seen with the backlash over Torfyanka Park in 2015-2016 which resulted in a rare victory for the protesters.Patriarch Kirill took a
Christian Studies Center at Fordham University and former executive editor of a leading publication of the Russian Orthodox Church, told The
Moscow Times.Churches in the Russian capital are largely concentrated in the city center, he said, and are notably scarce in residential
districts designed during the Soviet era.However, it is only possible to build several hundred new churches through infill development,
Patriarch Kirill are rapidly losing credibility among the public because they do not engage in open dialogue during conflict situations, he
And ordinary people will respond accordingly, they will say, 'This is not the Church that is with us, this is the Church that is together
with the state against us'," Chapnin noted.The area of the Park on Zelyony Prospekt allocated for the church (in green-yellow).cntd.ruEven
when faced with public opposition, priests or bishops may be driven by the ambition to show their influence and ability to override public
dissent, Cyril Hovorun, director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute in Los Angeles and former adviser to Patriarch Kirill, told The
to her rough estimates from interviews with locals, only 10% genuinely support the church, while about 70% explicitly oppose it
collaborators of the enemies of the Motherland
online turned out to not be from the area
disheartened, realizing that much depends on their activism."Allies are people who care, who love the city they live in
