Mother Xenia's Interview on Radio Liberty

WATCH OUT FOR YOUR RELICS
Felix Shedkovsky, March 19, 2010.

Amidst aggressive attacks in printed and electronic media, charges of fraud were filed against priests of St. Elizabeth's Orthodox parish, under the  jurisdiction of Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC).

In the center of the scandal which the church of St. Elizabeth found itself in, stands ROAC Bishop of Petrograd and Gdov Gregory (Lourie). Nearly eight identical reports appeared on March 16 and 17 on five Russian television channels. These reports were discussed in great detail on Portal-Credo.ru - a website that on April 1st loses its funding, because of  the pressure on its supporters (some of whom are members of ROAC) from the side of the Moscow Patriarchate. These reports were followed by two more on March 17. Federal channel NTV made its report at prime-time, at 19:10, during the news show “Today” (repeated at 23:21). Another, “Channel 5”, which also recently had become federal, aired a report at 19:19, titled “Gang of mummers”. NTV journalist Ilya Fedosov made his report from the street next to the St. Elizabeth's Hospital morgue chapel, where a search was actually done by the police, but did not enter the chapel, nor the nearby church of St. Elizabeth, actually using the police footage, and only revealing this with the words “police footage” written briefly on the screen, at the very end of the report.

The Parish Secretary of St. Elizabeth's church, nun Xenia, gave an interview to Radio Liberty.

RL: What do you think is the goal of this campaign?

NX: The takeover of the church building. Our church, ROAC, is not a part of the official Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (ROC MP). Recently in Suzdal, 10 church buildings were taken from ROAC by ROC MP. Also there is an active process of “sweeping up” in the Vladimir Region, where they are trying to take several more. And now it is our turn. The trend is quite obvious. All these church buildings are given to MP. So far we are being questioned only as witnesses in the case of fraud. No one is arrested, but its a typical police practice, to engage future victims as witnesses at first. It's a rather curious point -  Department “E” of Main Department of Internal Affairs, whose task is to fight extremism, has all of a sudden “found” a group of fraudsters.

RL: This fraud your parish priests are accused of... Reportedly, some of your priests were claiming to be priests from ROC MP for services held at the chapel, which is affiliated with the morgue of the nearby St. Elizabeth Hospital. Is that possible? Are they next to each other, and the church belongs to ROAC, while the chapel belongs to MP?

NX: The chapel (of the morgue. ed.) is located on the Hospital grounds, and does not belong to any jurisdiction, but almost all the ceremonies  there are mostly performed by MP clerics. Sometimes, although rarely, people from other jurisdictions, not just ours, perform rituals there. As for our church, the building is close to the Hospital, but outside its territory, and so when they did a search in there as well, we were told that they suspected that our church is somehow linked to the chapel. But criminal charges are filed in connection with the chapel.

RL: The second part of the fraud case is the question of fake relics.

NX: Yes, they have, allegedly, discovered fake relics in the church. Of course, it is very interesting, that our police now is also an expert in establishing the “authenticity” of relics of the Saints. The official website for Main Department of Internal Affairs has this humorous line posted: “We wonder where did those poor souls go,after having had their memorials services performed by fraudsters”. Imagine that, what pious matters our police is now concerned with! Police, anti-extremist units ( they should add firefighters as well!) - all wondering: "where did those poor souls go?"

RL: TV reports showed that entrance sign, the one on the morgue chapel, where it is written that it belongs to Moscow Patriarchate. And they claimed your church used that sign to lure simpleminded people in you church.

NX: Well, first of all, there were no signs on the chapel. There used to be a sign, then it fell off the wall, and it was lying there somewhere in the corner, so that's what they found during the search. But we have nothing to do with that sign. In any case, that chapel is where MP clerics are performing their rituals, so the sign is quite truthful in that regard. And what it literally says, is that services in the chapel are performed with the blessing of Metropolitan  John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. He did bless the chapel long ago . He died in 1995.

RL: To prove that the sign is a part of the fraud, reporters say that it has a wrong name, not the name of the current metropolitan.

NX: Well of course, it's just a historical sign. It has the name of the Metropolitan who blessed the chapel. It is true that now there's a different metropolitan, since the previous one is long dead. So even if that sign was hanging there, there would be nothing wrong with it.

RL: And what does the entrance sign of your church say?

NX: “The Church of St. Elizabeth, Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church”. When they were conducting the search, they asked me what this meant. I explained that our parish is officially registered, that we are not just some random people or fraudsters, and that our official registry entry says “Church of St. Elizabeth under jurisdiction of ROAC”. The parish is properly registered. The church is still under construction. I will repeat once more – the goal of ROC MP is to take away our church.

RL: And were you present when TV reporters came with cameras?

NX: There were no TV crews with cameras – video shown on TV was just police footage. Here are two more interesting details. In order to make the search  of the church, the police came with officials from Department “E” (Anti-Extremist Unit, Ministry of Internal Affairs) which does not file charges. All they do is gather evidence. So Department “E” folks brought all the detectives and officers from the regular police - the people who actually opened the case - and were ordering them around. And the chief of the “E” unit  was very annoyed that TV reporters did show up. You see, they had planned on publicizing their operation  and for the sake making the picture more dramatic, they even brought a Special Forces squad, who were all lined up outside, with their backs to the church. And alas, despite all their efforts, the images of their operation did not make it to the TV screens.

RL: What about (police) detectives and officers, did they act professionally?

NX: Yes, no complaints about them. The “E” unit people tried to provoke them to make more fuss, but they were very professional, did not do anything wrong, no violations. And here is a second interesting detail. One of these “E” officers was walking around in the church with his hat on, and when he was told that it is not proper for a man to be in the church with his head covered, he replied:  "Your" church is not a church, so here it is allowed”. Department “E” is infamous. Instead of fighting against extremism, it has been frequently used for doing such dirty jobs.

RL: So, at this point, none of your clerics are arrested, they are just witnesses. But has anybody been actually charged?

NX: No, we are all witnesses in the case of fraud, which was allegedly carried out by unidentified perpetrators.

RL: On TV they said that “fraudsters” took very big payments for funeral services. It was meant to be a proof of their connection to your church, because, allegedly, MP churches all take just 50 roubles for that, while in your church the price is a 1000.

NX: No, nowhere is the price as low as 50 roubles. I don't know exact prices, but they are more or less the same in all the churches. Now, in the morgue chapel, where MP clerics were performing their services, prices could be different. It is typical for all morgues, that their services there are significantly more expensive.

RL: But is there a difference in what your church charges, compared to prices in that chapel?

NX: Yes, our church has higher prices for candles, conmemoration, it just happened to be this way, historically. On the other hand, baptisms, weddings and funeral services in our church are all free. At any rate, we did not receive any accusations concerning our church yet, except for that ridiculous one, about the fake relics. But we have to wait - accusations will come. They documented all the relics, and claimed they were fake. They asked us if we have “certificates” that our relics are true. We told them to go to any church out there and ask about the certificates. As for our church our church... well, if they really want to, they will take it from us, with or without the relics, even if everything is perfectly registered and documented. There is always something to quibble about. So far, detectives did not mention the church itself, but the scenario is likely to follow the events of Suzdal. They will open criminal cases and will wait to see if we will give up. I don not know how it will happen. We shall see. It looks like the orders came from someone very high up.

Source: http://www.svobodanews.ru/articleprintview/1988639.html