For Russia's Future Priests, An Education In Church-State Ties

Desks are stacked with piles of books. Some students have brought laptops, many of which are open to Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Other pupils chat casually with friends.

But then a teacher enters the classroom. The students stand up and, turning to face an icon hanging on the wall, begin morning prayers before starting a lesson on early Christian martyrs.

This is Sergiyev Posad, home to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the most important monastery in Russia and the spiritual home of the Russian Orthodox Church. Located on Russia's Golden Ring, a circle of historic cities just northeast of Moscow, it is also home to the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, where budding priests from all over Russia come to train.

Today Russia is marking a newly resurrected holiday: the commemoration of the adoption of Christianity in 10th-century Kievan Rus. The celebration comes at a time when the Russian Orthodox Church is increasingly seen as one of the Kremlin's most effective tools in forging a new, post-Soviet national identity. The rise of the church and its ties to "Russianness" have worried many who say it fuels discrimination against the country's ethnic and religious minorities.

But at St. Sergius, Russia's best-known seminary, students and instructors argue that the church is a force for moderation and tolerance. This current crop of young men is preparing to enter the priesthood at a time when the influence of the Orthodox Church and its ties to the Russian state are seen as on the rise.

Twenty years ago, the church was official anathema. But today the Russian political elite, including President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, make a show of their Orthodox devotion.

They attend Christmas and Easter Mass and have added new religious holidays to the state calendar -- such as today's commemoration of the Baptism of Kievan Rus, when Grand Prince Vladimir the Great converted to Christianity and proceeded to baptize all of his subjects.

The 10th-century event is seen as both the birth of Christian belief and political empire in what was to become in part modern-day Russia. The Russian parliament, approving the new holiday, said the establishing of the Christian faith in the 10th century "helped promote the consolidation and flourishing of the state and exerted a great influence on the maintenance of Russia's unity at knotty periods of history."

Such sentiments have stirred concerns of deepening bonds between church and state at a time when the Kremlin is looking to fuel patriotic and national sentiment as a way of boosting its authority. Russian officials have even helped carve out new roles for the church in normally secular aspects of society -- like a plan to appoint Orthodox priests as military chaplains in the Russian Army.

The Russian Constitution currently makes a clear division between church and state. But in practice, says Andrei Zolotov, an expert in Russian religious affairs, the two sides enjoy a cozier, European-style partnership. He suggests the constitution may eventually be amended to allow a formal church-state bond to flourish.

"The constitution doesn't work if it prescribes things that are far from national traditions and historical development. I think that in the long run -- in the next 50-100 years -- there will be a need for new legislation to determine church-state relations in Russia," Zolotov says.

The church has blossomed under its political patronage and with the enthronement last year of Patriarch Kirill, who is seen as more dynamic and liberal than his predecessor, Aleksy, who had been raised in the Cold War tradition of subterranean ties between church and state and was appointed in the waning days of the Soviet Union.

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