Alexander Novopashin is a well-known archpriest in the country who oversees the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, and is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate.
For his support of the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine and his anti-cult actions, Sergey Kiriyenko, a representative of the Russian presidential administration, presented him with the Order of Friendship this year, on behalf of Vladimir Putin himself.
On January 2, Novopashin gave his “Sermon at the Divine Liturgy of the Week Before the Nativity of Christ.”
Drawing drawing on the sermons of St. John of Kronstadt (a Russian Archpriest who died in 1908). The archpriest reminds us that God has given the tough duty of “keeping and multiplying the priceless talent of the only saving Orthodox faith” to the Russian people because they are “God’s chosen people“.
And then:
“Let’s hear what the great prophet John of Kronstadt has to say: “Russia is disturbed, suffering, tormented by a bloody internal battle, by impiety, and by a severe moral degradation. Not good! Humans have evolved into monsters and even demonic spirits. Sins of various types abound in daily life. Blasphemy, disbelief in God, and apostasy have virtually become widespread in the educated class. Daily debauchery has become the norm, and literature and the media are filled with temptation.“
The archpriest continued, “This is precisely what Russian society is going through right now”.
Actually a few days earlier on December 30, Novopashin was interviewed by the newspaper Russian Folk Lineage (a Russian newspaper advocating autocracy, orthodoxy, and Russian nationality). Answering the questions of the journalist about the “Special Operation in Ukraine”, he said:
“I hope and believe that the Lord will not leave us. We are doing a good deed: we are not fighting Ukraine and Ukrainians, but the cannibalistic Nazi ideology, which has enslaved the minds of many people. I do not only support it, but I am convinced that the liberation battle was simply necessary. And perhaps much earlier.
(…)
The country is cleaned of the dirt that, unfortunately, was on a pedestal. I hope that this will continue further.
(…)
We pray to God and strive to make our Homeland triumph over the evil spirits that have spread throughout the world. And our society, alas, was seriously saturated with ideological and physical evil spirits. The task is to cleanse us of evil spirits so that it becomes easier to breathe.“
Cleansing Russia of evil spirits is of course a very important act for the Kremlin today. We would just like that they apply the famous USSR “self-criticism” to themselves… Then maybe the cleansing would be salutary revival.
Joke aside, Alexander Novopashin is also an official representative of FECRIS, a French umbrella anti-cult organization funded by the French government. Recently, in November, 82 Ukrainian prominent scholars wrote to French President Macron to ask him to put an end to the funding of FECRIS by the French state. It might be time for the French to listen…
