www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Sweden says Russian Orthodox Church spies for Kremlin

I hope y'all don't mind the source. I want to find a different one, but, I don't really know much Swedish. I prefer primary sources, if available. Anyway, I am curious about y'alls take. I always feel like such an oddity, the fact that people with some of the views I have, think I have some kind of moral obligation to support Putin, or to claim that the country that persecutes my Church is the bastion of Christianity. Sweden's Security Service Says Russian Orthodox Church spies for Kremlin [euromaidanpress.com]

It is well known that Patriarch Kyrill and numerous other clergy of the Moscow Patriarch openly support Putin and the war against Ukraine. Russian Orthodox clergy have been suspended and even removed for refusing to read the patriarch’s statements supporting Putin and the war.

It is also well known that some in the MP work for Russian intelligence. I have friends originally from Eastern Europe who often complain about the damage that this does to Orthodoxy, and to Christianity in general. So, while I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of what’s going on in Sweden, I find the article you linked entirely believable.

I will also add that the patriarch remains upset that a large number of Orthodox parishes in Ukraine have switched their allegiance from Moscow to another Orthodox jurisdiction.

Christ is in our midst!!

I had a thought about this entanglement of the Russian Orthodox Church with the current Russian government. I seem to recall that the complaints of the Bolsheviks against the Russian Church and their subsequent persecution of it stemmed from the Church's entanglement with the czarist government and its persecution of the Bolsheviks prior to the October Revolution. Seems this Church never learns the lesson that it ought not become entangled with government of any kind, but stick to its primary reason for existence: spreading the Gospel and saving souls.

I'm still quite amazed at the apparent near-total acquiescence of the ROCOR's membership to their pro-Moscow leadership.

I like Sweden . . .

As for the spies thing - yeah, that is about right . . .

Alex