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"Russian Church mulls stop to practice of blessing nukes"

The Bread Guy

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This from France's wire service ...
The Russian Orthodox Church has proposed a stop to the practice of having priests bless weapons of mass destruction, though sprinkling holy water on planes and ships is still deemed appropriate.

The Church on Monday published a draft document outlining its role in blessing Orthodox Christians who "protect the Fatherland" and "carry out their military duty", inviting internet users to discuss the proposal online.

Russians often ask priests to bless anything from new cars and flats to Soyuz spaceships in the belief that the gesture bestows divine protection.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, priests have also begun blessing troops, planes and ships, and all sorts of weapons, from Kalashnikov rifles to nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles.

But the document proposed that "blessing any type of weapons the usage of which can inflict an indefinite number of deaths, including weapons with indiscriminate effects or weapons of mass destruction... be removed from pastoral practice."

At the same time, it remains "appropriate" to "bless transport used by soldiers on land, water and in the air", to ask God to protect the men using them, it said.

The Russian military has forged ever closer ties to the Church under Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is overseeing the construction of a huge cathedral for Russia's armed forces outside Moscow.

It is to be opened on May 9, the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War.

Since 2010 the military has inducted priests into its ranks, including an airborne unit which can deploy with mobile inflatable chapels.
... with more details in the attached church documents (in Google English and in Russian), and in this story from last summer:
... Weapons systems, including Topol-class intercontinental ballistic missiles, are frequently blessed by members of the Russian Orthodox clergy during military parades and other events. These blessings are seen as a way of spiritually protecting the country.

In 2007, Russia’s nuclear weapons were consecrated in a service at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. In Russian Orthodoxy, the patron saint of Russia’s nuclear weapons is St. Seraphim.

Tutunov’s view is not universally held in the Orthodox Church. According to  the piece published by Religion News Service, Fr. Vsevolod Chaplain, a former spokesman for the Patriarch of Moscow, said that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is akin to the “guardian angels” of the country and are needed to protect Orthodoxy.

“Only nuclear weapons protect Russia from enslavement by the West,” Chaplin said to a Russian newspaper.

Patriarch Kirill is rumored to have been a KGB agent prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. His predecessor, Patriarch Alexy II is also believed to have been a KGB agent. The Moscow Patriarchate denies this ...
 

Attachments

  • patriarchia.ru-Draft document On the blessing of Orthodox Christians for the performance of mi...pdf
    78 KB · Views: 37
  • patriarchia.ru-Проект документа О благословении православных христиан на исполнение воинского ...pdf
    79.1 KB · Views: 37
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy."

And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--
 
garb811 said:
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy."

And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--

Three shall be the count, the count shall be three......
 
Oh Lord! I can see this catching on amongst Southern fundamentalists. There'll be a whole new online ministry asking for tithes so that they can send missionaries out to bless gear. H'mmmm. Maybe there's an opportunity here to make a stinking great big pile of money out of this. Maybe a cult with eighteen-year old disciples?

:stirpot:
 
FJAG said:
Oh Lord! I can see this catching on amongst Southern fundamentalists. There'll be a whole new online ministry asking for tithes so that they can send missionaries out to bless gear. H'mmmm. Maybe there's an opportunity here to make a stinking great big pile of money out of this. Maybe a cult with eighteen-year old disciples?

:stirpot:

Needs a catchy title - The Church of the Holy Apocalypse or maybe the Church of the Holy Annihilator
 
Hamish Seggie said:
Three shall be the count, the count shall be three......

Thou shalt not counst to four, and neither shalt thou counst to two, except for then proceeding unto three. Five is right out!
 
Hamish Seggie said:
Needs a catchy title - The Church of the Holy Apocalypse or maybe the Church of the Holy Annihilator

Church of the Afterlife Assistant if the others seem too "fire and brimstone-y"?  You know, for the cross-cultural recruiting  :nod:
 
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