The new exarch of White Rus' satisfied everyone - even dissidents
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church today accepted the petition of the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, for dismissal from office.
Bishop Veniamin of Borisov and Maryingor was appointed Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl. Metropolitan Pavel was appointed head of the Kuban Metropolis.
Metropolitan Pavel appeared several times in the rapid kaleidoscope of Belarusian news over the past month. On August 10, he congratulated President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election, and on August 15 he apologized for this to his flock.
As Archpriest Sergius Lepin, press secretary of the exarchate, explained at the time, the bishop considered his congratulations premature because he saw the video of the arrests of protesters and was “indignant, horrified and upset.”
After this, every day prayers in support of the detainees and religious processions were held in Orthodox churches in Belarus. The Metropolitan himself visited the victims of the protests in the Minsk hospital.
And some Orthodox priests allowed themselves to deliver overtly political pamphlets during their sermons. For example, Archbishop Artemy said in the Holy Intercession Cathedral in Grodno that lawlessness is being committed in Belarus.
“Our people have turned into animals and are tormenting their own brothers. People come to us priests and tell us about this with tears in their eyes. Therefore, we say: stop, you are not acting according to the Gospel, you have raised your hand against Christ. You will not be forgiven, and your cause will never stand,” Artemy said.
As an example of pastoral virtue, he cited Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, who opposed Ivan the Terrible and suffered for it. From a lectern he shamed teachers who were members of election commissions.
“You need to be on your knees for all the falsification and lies, for the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, for everything that happened. Your students have broken free. They are thirsty for blood, they are insane,” the priest said.
Political scientist Alexey Dzermant, close to the president, hints that today’s decision of the Synod is connected with the political situation.
“And you say that this crisis has nothing to do with geopolitics, religion and identities. Has, has. The new head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church is a well-known supporter of the unity of Rus' and an opponent of autocephaly. But this suggests that there were problems in the Church with this,” Dzermant wrote in his Telegram channel.
Liberal Russian political scientist Alexei Makarkin believes that the Synod made the decision to change the metropolitan in the interests of Alexander Lukashenko.
“In recent weeks, Paul was unable to keep the Church from internal division, not only at the level of the flock (this was impossible), but even at the episcopate. The liberal Grodno Archbishop Artemy actually supported the protesters, and the conservative Novogrudok Archbishop Gury did not bless (in church language this means a ban) for his clergy to participate in political actions. For Lukashenko, the very fact of fluctuations in the Church was unacceptable. Under these conditions, Pavel leaves the country - he was replaced by Bishop Veniamin of Borisov, the first Belarusian to serve as exarch in independent Belarus, and a hierarch loyal to Lukashenko,” Makarkin wrote.
Belarusian priest Alexander Shramko, who was previously suspended from service for criticizing Patriarch Kirill, believes that Veniamin’s appointment is a clear victory for Lukashenko.
“I have not heard anything about Metropolitan Pavel asking to resign. Most likely, he was asked to do this retroactively. “Recently, his actions have irritated the authorities: visiting the wounded during peaceful protests, apologizing for congratulating Lukashenko, he did not in any way punish the priests who took part in the protests,” Shramko said.
Expert at the Institute of CIS Countries Kirill Frolov welcomes the replacement of the metropolitan in Belarus.
“This is a historic, greatest decision. The new Exarch Bishop Benjamin is a zealot for the unity of Great, Little and White Rus'... an intelligent, educated monk, extremely accessible to people, a zealot for the canonization of the great apostle of White Rus', who abolished the union and thereby returned White Rus' to Russia, Metropolitan Joseph (Semashko). Exarch Paul played with the “uprising of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.” The last straw was his scandalous press release in support of the “Polish uprising,” Frolov said.
But dissident deacon Andrei Kuraev believes that the decision of the Synod may not be related to politics.
“I congratulate you: for the first time in many, many years, a native of your country, and not a Varangian, has become the Metropolitan of Belarus. This is already excellent. Benjamin is a person who has not been tainted by any political declarations. He was engaged in the construction of a theological school, not in the sense of some brick building, but in creating a methodology, encouraging people, students. A very good and unexpected choice. I’m glad that everything was resolved this way,” Kuraev told the nationalist publication Nasha Niva.
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