Russian turn to their traditional faith at a time of crisis

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Russia's strong and very noticeable turn towards Christianity continues apace, accelerated by the military conflict in the Ukraine, which has spurred many Russians to turn to their traditional faith for answers.

At a recent church working meeting the head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, recalled how when the expensive church-building program was first proposed a little over 10 years ago, planning to build 200 churches over 15 years, there were many nay-sayers, who argued that many churches in Moscow are empty anyway, and that the whole program would be a colossal waste of money.

Moscow has built 100 churches in the last decade, with 300 more under construction.

The costs of building the churches is shared by the Moscow government and the Russian Orthodox Church, with the government providing the land and infrastructure (i.e. utility connections, driveways, etc), and the Church providing the construction costs.

In contrast to the US, where parish members finance church construction with the help of mortgages, Russian parishioners do not usually fund the construction of their churches, although it does occur in perhaps 20% of cases.

Moscow has a lot of old churches in the old center, but not many in the seemingly endless expanses of modern apartment towers that make up most of the geography of the city. It was true at the time that some of the old churches in the city center, home to hipsters and elites in general, were lightly attended. What the doubters failed to understand was that people are more likely to go to a church in their general neighborhood. But now, in the new turn to Christianity, even the central churches are full.

The Patriarch also pointed out that many of those who are filling the new churches are recent converts who never went to church before, making the church building program a missionary project while also helping existing believers get to church.

Kirill applauded the expanded plans to build yet another 300 churches, for a total of 400, twice as many as originally planned, telling the meeting that it was now clear that they would easily be filled.

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