On 6 June 2024, he had the honour of taking part in the international theological academic conference “The Mission of the Church in the post-war perspective of Ukraine”, which was organized by the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy of the Volyn Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Finally, the world began to seriously talk about the prospects of the collapse of Russia. Undoubtedly, sooner or later, I think that during our lifetime the “evil empire” called the “Russian Federation” will collapse and 30-40 new independent states will emerge on its ruins.
We seriously and confidently talk about the disintegration of Russia, but for some reason, we still do not talk about the disintegration of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Unfortunately, the Russian state used Orthodoxy for centuries to enslave the nations, using the Russian church as a tool to consolidate and fight against the national identity of the people. The Russian church became a ministry in the Russian empire, and priests became officials who, together with Russian teachers, were responsible for the Russification of indigenous people.
After Stalin re-founded the Russian Orthodox Church in 1943, the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church began to actively serve the interests of the Kremlin, and this continues to this day. Currently, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, by order of Putin, blesses Russia’s war against Ukraine, blesses the genocide of Ukrainians, calling it a “holy war.” After that, the RPC (Russian Orthodox Church) has no future. The future of the RPC is the future disintegration into smaller local autocephalous churches.
On the ruins of the Russian Orthodox Church, the real autocephaly will be immediately proclaimed naturally. The current churches are part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but now they are outside the borders of the modern RF – the Belarusian Church, the Chinese Church, and the Japanese Church.
But even though the Russian Orthodox Church was an instrument of the enslavement of indigenous people, there are Orthodox in the enslaved national republics of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, and after the collapse of Russia, new Orthodox local churches of these indigenous and currently enslaved nations should emerge from these Orthodox believers.
As an example, I told the conference participants that instead of the Republic of Mordovia, a state called Erzyan Mastor would emerge – i.e. the State of Erzyan. Russian occupiers have always invented offensive names for enslaved nations. I could give an example, but I’m afraid Facebook will ban the post. Using the name Mordva concerning the Erzians and Mokshans is as offensive as the name Kh*khla to Ukrainians. But if Facebook bans posts for using the word h*hly, it does not ban Mordovia for the word.
Therefore, the name Mordovia is offensive. After the collapse of Russia, Mordovia will no longer exist – Erzyan Mastor will appear there, and according to rule 34 of the Rules of the Holy Apostles: “The bishops of every nation should know the first among them, and recognize him as the head…” in the independent state of the Erzyan people, the local autocephalous Orthodox Church of Erzyan Mastor should appear led by His Beatitude Metropolitan of Saransk. The canonical territory of the Orthodox Church in Erzyan Mastori will obviously unite not only the territory of the modern Republic of Mordovia but also partly the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, partly the territory of the modern Ryazan Region, possibly partly the territory of the modern Chuvash Republic, although it is worth noting that the Chuvash are a completely separate people and among them, there are many Orthodox.
Therefore, the autocephalous and local Orthodox Church of Chuvashia should appear together with the Erzyan Mastor Church – they will be the engines of the disintegration of the Moscow Patriarchate in Eastern Europe, and in Northern Europe, such an engine will be the local and autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Republic of Komi.
The liturgical language in Erzyan Mastori will be Erzyan, but also Mokshan for the Mokshan communities in Erzyan Mastori.
When you read about the local autocephalous Orthodox Church of Erzyan Mastor, it sounds somehow fantastic and unreal. First, it is only necessary to name the main shrines of this Church and it becomes more or less clear what it is about: Diveevo, Sarov, Arzamas, etc. Imagine that many churches in Ukraine have icons of one of the most famous Orthodox saints of the Erzyan people – this is Saint Seraphim of Sarov, although they say that he was of Ukrainian origin and went on a pilgrimage to Kyiv in his youth.
By the way, the Erzyan and Ukrainian people are very closely related. That is why, in the post-war perspective, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine should extend a helping hand to the Orthodox Erzyans. These lands are a distant fragment of the ancient Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Constantinople Orthodox Church. It was the Ukrainians who spread the light of Christ’s Gospel in these places. The main Orthodox missionary for the Erzians was the Ukrainian Cossack, a native of Novgorod-Siversky, a graduate of the Chernihiv Collegium and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Bishop Feofil Raev of Tambov and Shatsky. And a Ukrainian Cossack from Lokhvytsia, a graduate of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Metropolitan of Kazan Veniamin Putsek-Gryhorovych compiled the first Erzyan dictionary.
Here, of course, it is worth mentioning that Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev is also originally from Erzya, but he does not admit it and calls himself Russian.
Therefore, for us Ukrainian Orthodox, after the collapse of Russia, a new difficult challenge arises – the challenge of a new Christian mission for the enslaved nations of the RF.
After the collapse of Russia and the revival of the independent state of Erzyan, the legislative body of Erzyan must pass a law on the liquidation of the imperial fragment – RPC on the territory of their state, and later pass a law on the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Erzyan, as Estonia once did, and Ukraine in 1919, and then issue an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate about granting autocephaly to this disordered region of the former Kyiv Metropolitanate.
When someone says that the very idea of a local autocephalous Orthodox Church in Erzyan Mastori is a fantasy and will never happen, I want to remind you that even say 150 years ago, the very idea of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church also sounded fantastic, and those who proclaimed this idea were called “dissidents” and “heretics”, but now the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is our reality. Ukraine’s victory in the war with Russia and the collapse of Russia, and Erzyan Mastori and the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Erzyan Mastori are also realities that await us in the future.
