On September 13, 2014, Bishop Nektary of Liven and Maloarkhangelsk arrived at the place of service. The episcopal consecration of His Eminence was performed on September 9 in the Trinity Cathedral of Kaluga by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', co-served by a host of archpastors of the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the entrance to St. Sergius Cathedral, Bishop Nektary was met with bread and salt and flowers by Sunday school pupils, the clergy of the diocese, representatives of district and city authorities, representatives of the public, Cossacks, and laity.

A thanksgiving prayer service was served, at the end of which Archpriest Viktor Yakovets, rector of St. Sergius Cathedral and dean of the Livensky district, addressed the ruling bishop on behalf of the clergy of the diocese. In his welcoming speech, he recalled that at the beginning of the 20th century, the Livensky See was a vicariate in the Oryol diocese; Bishop Sergius (Kuminsky) was appointed to the city, who was never able to take over the management of affairs for political reasons, and was transferred to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Now the first ruling bishop has arrived from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to Livny. Father Victor wished the Vladyka strength of mental and physical strength, abundant mercies of God and strengthening in good deeds. In memory of the arrival of its first bishop in the diocese, the clergy presented Bishop Nektary with a memorial panagia with the wish of many good years of life for the good of the Church of Christ.

Bishop Nektary in his response noted that the episcopal service is asceticism and great responsibility, but he hopes for God’s help and the support of Orthodox Christians.

Addressing the Livonians, the Bishop noted: “You and I are not just bearers of the Christian faith, we are called to be its guardians. Modern liberal European values ​​are displacing traditional values ​​on which the world order has always been based from the consciousness of the world community. The world is turning upside down. And we must sacredly guard and protect our faith from desecration. Holy Rus' has always been a stronghold of the Orthodox faith; even in our difficult times, it must preserve its identity and bring the light of the Gospel truth to the world. The preservation of Rus' depends on each of us. We must strive for life in Christ, for keeping the commandments, and then people around us will be saved. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, handing over the archpastoral staff, admonished me with words of support and consolation. These words strengthened my heart, because I was called by the Lord to the difficult path of hierarchal service. The Liven diocese was one of the first to be enlightened by the Light of Christ's Truth under the Hieromartyr Kuksha. Orthodoxy has been shining here for many centuries. I ask everyone’s prayers to strengthen me in this difficult ministry!”

The head of the urban district of the city of Livny, Leonid Faustov, welcoming the Archpastor, emphasized: “This is the beginning of changes in the spiritual life of the city, the moral life of the city. This is the beginning of our joint work to help the Church in the enormous work that lies ahead.”

In conclusion, Bishop Nektarios was congratulated by the priests and Orthodox believers gathered in the St. Sergius Cathedral.

Illustration copyright livnyeparhia.com

Bishop Nektary in the Oryol region found himself at the center of a scandal after he acquired an elite Toyota Land Cruiser V8 SUV, the price of which exceeds five million rubles.

The local metropolis explained to the Open Russia publication that the clergyman received the car from a local agricultural holding and suggested “not to get involved.”

Despite criticism from the media and the public, neither the bishop himself nor the local authorities see a problem with the priest having an expensive car.

On Monday evening, the Oryol News publication stated that it had received a letter demanding that articles about the clergyman’s car be removed from the site.

“Bishop Nektary did not write any statement to Oryol News. The document that was published is a forged document,” Interfax quotes metropolitan representative Evgeny Borisov.

The Metropolis expressed hope that law enforcement agencies would intervene in the situation. The archdiocese's statement said the letter was sent to the media on behalf of the bishop from an anonymous email address.

Journalists were unable to get a comment from Nektary himself. However, a recording made by pranksters appeared on YouTube, in which, according to its authors, he comments on the purchase of the car.

In the recording, the authenticity of which has not been confirmed, the man, whom its authors call Bishop Nektariy, states that the head of the Agrograd company gave him the funds to buy the car, taking away his old broken car and handing it over for a trade-in. As a result, the Toyota allegedly cost the priest not 6 million, but 3 million rubles.

The BBC Russian service has collected the most striking quotes from the discussion of the conflict.

Oryol Metropolis:

“Jesus Christ himself wore expensive clothes, which were given by people who revered him. Many saints accepted the same thing. For example, John of Kronstadt received expensive vestments, cars, ships, etc. in the same way. This is not at all a characteristic of a person’s spiritual life if this person bears public service, obedience to the bishop, as in the case of Bishop Nektarios."

Oryol Governor Vadim Potomsky on radio "Moscow Speaks";

“We can go to church, pray, ask for God’s alms. But if we go to God’s representatives, we start lynching them and throwing something at them... God is not a fraer. He sees everything. And there is only one court: God’s court. We have this goes to the patriarch: the watch is wrong, he lives wrong, he drives the wrong car.”

Statement,laid outpublication "Oryol News":

“Such antics undermine the spiritual and moral foundations of our society, casting a shadow on the Holy Church and its honest servants. Do not hope that your public lies will remain unanswered by the Russian Orthodox Church. But our Lord Jesus Christ called for forgiveness of enemies, so I am giving you the only chance fix everything and DEMAND that information concerning me be removed from your immoral media.”

Deputy Vitaly Milonov in a comment to the publication "Politics Today":

“There are many bishops in Russia who drive different cars. Foreign cars, Nivas, and what next? I would never pay six million for a Toyota. The car is stupid. In this situation, the car needs to be changed, because it doesn’t cost that much. There are decent cars for less money."

Man introduced as Bishop Nektarios, in a conversation with pranksters about “beautiful” license plates on a car:

“The Vladyka always has the numbers given to him because I take part in all sorts of special events. To make it easier for the Vladyka to drive up, because the traffic police know these numbers and allow him to attend the special events.”

Patriarch Kirill about expensive vehicles, 2012;

“Let’s think about how we use vehicles that ill-wishers will not use as a reason to discredit the clergy... I urge you to moderation and a reasonable approach, which should also remove the corresponding accusation from the church and the clergy.” .

Another regional scandal in which it got caught up risks becoming national: the federal media, the local governor and, in absentia, the highest church leadership joined in the discussion of the Toyota Land Cruiser V8 donated to Bishop Nektariy of Liveni. spoke with church representatives and local journalists to understand what was happening.

The Oryol News reported on the successful acquisition of Bishop Livensky of the Oryol Metropolis of Nektary (Seleznev) on May 23: a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 SUV with a capacity of 288 horsepower costs about 6 million rubles (with this money you can buy three apartments in Oryol - approx. "Tapes.ru").

The topic was instantly picked up by federal media and social network users. The generosity of the donor's soul has become a common property.

It is noteworthy that the church did not deny the fact of the gift and did not see anything reprehensible in it.

“He himself wore expensive clothes, which were given to him, let’s say, by those people who revered him,” said the information and analytical department of the metropolis. They stated that the church, represented by the bishop, received an SUV as a gift from a certain agricultural holding, and he, as an “economic entity,” has the right to dispose of it at his own discretion.

On the Breaking Mash YouTube channel published a conversation allegedly between Nektary himself and the pranksters, in which he admits that “the funds to purchase” this car were given to him by Pavel Tsarev, the general director of the Agrogard agricultural holding, which produces milk, cattle meat and crop products on 150 thousand hectares of farmland.

Neither the holding nor the diocese denied this information, but they also refused to comment on it to Lenta.ru.

Bishop Nektary, according to some sources, controls a significant part of the financial flows in the Oryol Metropolis. For about 30 years he has been close to Metropolitan Anthony: he was his subdeacon, cell attendant and secretary, even when he headed the Krasnoyarsk Metropolis, moved to Orel with him in 2011, and already in 2014 received his own diocese.

Letter of happiness

Less than a week after the publication of the resonant article, the editorial office of Oryol News received an email signed by Bishop Nektary, which contained threats to sue the publication under the article of insulting the feelings of believers.

The editor-in-chief of Oryol News Denis Volin shared with Lenta.ru a copy of the message that came from the mailbox [email protected], with a scan of a letter from the hierarch, dated May 29. And the very next day, May 30, when the text of the letter became known to the general public, the editorial office was visited by Nektariy’s lawyer, who convinced the staff that the bishop did not write anything of the kind and, according to the diocesan secretary Father Alexander, did not intend to arrange any proceedings.

However, the lawyer’s words did not convince the publication’s management. “It’s impossible to say that this is a fake. The letter was prepared on official diocesan letterhead, with an official seal, and with Nektary’s personal signature,” says Volin. “We don’t yet have any evidence of the forgery of this document, except for the words of Father Alexander.”

Further events developed along a trajectory unusual for conflicts between church and society. Within a few hours, the diocese reporting to Nektariy stated that his letter to Oryol News was a forgery and a provocation. According to Father Alexander, neither the diocese nor Bishop Nektary has any claims to the publication. And about the ill-fated jeep, they explained that it is used not as a luxury, but as a means of transportation: it is difficult for a shepherd to get to his flock in remote corners of the Oryol region along impassable provincial roads.

The head of the diocesan information and analytical department of the Liven diocese, Deacon Yuri Shkuratyuk, in a conversation with Lenta.ru, did not make assumptions about who could have sent this “fake letter”: “You shouldn’t look for the extreme here, you won’t find the ends here. These are ordinary informational attacks on the church. We found a hot topic and blew it out of nothing.” According to him, the diocese is not in any conflict with anyone, and there cannot be a direct beneficiary of such a forgery.

“This is an absolute lie, photoshop and editing. We have this signature on a completely different document,” Nektariy’s secretary, Father Alexander, told Lenta.ru. He also has “not the slightest idea” who could have done such a thing.

It is possible, however, that Nektarios’ letter became a fake precisely at the moment when the story gained public resonance. Sources of Oryol News in the Oryol Metropolis reported that Nektary was strongly recommended to abandon this letter.

The former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate called the version with the forged letter strange. “For many years of working in the church and tracking in the information field what is happening to it, I have never seen anything like this,” he says. - There was no such thing as an official letter signed by a bishop being sent to some secular structures, and then someone suddenly declaring that such a letter does not exist, that it is a forgery and photoshop. It’s almost impossible to believe it.”

Impulsive statements and decisions by church representatives, including senior hierarchs, are not uncommon recently, says Chapnin. “I think it was the same impulsive decision that Bishop Nektary himself regretted. Or did his assistants come to their senses and cry out: “Lord, what have you done?” This is a blow not only to the personal reputation of the bishop, but also to the entire church,” the church leader believes. He sees the diocese’s use of the word “fake” from online newspeak and the statement that there are no claims against the newspaper as particularly unnatural.

Chapnin does not exclude that this decision was made in the highest church circles taking into account the enormous, national scale of the resonance. In his opinion, there could have been an order to quickly hush up the story, despite possible reputational losses. “The most important thing now is to stop the tide. Any publication in the media, regardless of its nature, will work against Nektary and against the church,” explained the Lenta.ru interlocutor.

However, the synodal department for relations between the church and society and the media of the Moscow Patriarchate hastened to say that the conflict between the priest of the Oryol Metropolis of Nektary and the Oryol News publication does not concern the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole.

“This is a matter at the diocesan level,” said deputy chairman of the department Vakhtang Kipshidze. According to him, the top management of the Russian Orthodox Church will not understand the situation.

Oryol cases

A separate and one of the most striking episodes of the scandal was the Oryol governor, under whose patronage the first monument in history was opened. He stated that “God is not a fraer,” and journalists have no right to criticize Nektary. Everything will be decided by God's judgment.

Photo: Sergey Mokrousov / RIA Novosti

“Our governor is an absolutely phenomenal person and a lover of dubious language (in December 2016, he called all journalists “nonsense” - approx. Lenti.ru). It seems to me that with this story he just wants to get additional dubious PR and nothing more,” comments Volin. At the same time, he confirmed that between Potomsky and Anthony (and therefore his protégé Nektary) there are certain disagreements related to the close connection of the governor with the confessor of Patriarch Kirill, Schema-Archimandrite Elijah (Nozdrev), a representative of the church “center”, which has its own interests in Orel . In particular, Elder Elijah is a co-founder of the construction of a huge “governor’s temple” in Vyatsky Posad.

“I think Potomsky’s speech in support of Nektary is a sign of corporate solidarity between the [secular] authorities and the church authorities,” says Chapnin. “But it’s better not to speak the way the governor spoke.” A moral assessment of what is happening in the church can be given by everyone who considers it necessary, but first of all, such an assessment should be given by the church itself.” In his opinion, for the bishop of a poor diocese, a car for six million rubles is excessive luxury and a challenge to common sense, and the whole scandal with the letter is an attempt to divert attention from this problem.

“As a citizen of the Russian Federation, Nektary has no rights and can do whatever he wants. But as a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, he has no moral right to such luxury,” Chapnin concluded.

The secretary of Bishop Nektary of Liveno and Maloarkhangelsk, Father Alexander, claims that the letter on behalf of the bishop demanding that an article about his luxury SUV be removed from the website of a local publication and threats of prosecution under the article of insulting the feelings of believers is a fake.

“I, as the secretary of the diocesan bishop, officially declare that Bishop Nektary did not write any letters to Oryol News. That is, this letter posted on the site is directly fake,” the clergyman said on air "Echo of Moscow".

The bishop's secretary suggested that the bishop's signature and letterhead were taken from another document. “I don’t know who composed this letter, who sent it to Oryol News, how it ended up there, but I assure you with confidence that the Liven diocese, Bishop Nektary and none of the employees wrote this letter,” he emphasized, adding that the diocese and the bishop have no claims to Oryol News and do not intend to go to court.

At the same time, the bishop’s secretary noted that the editors did not contact the diocese for an official comment and published unverified information.

Let us recall that a week ago, Oryol journalist Denis Volin, in an article on the Open Russia website, said that the head of the Liven and Maloarkhangelsk diocese, who is a monk, purchased a Land Cruiser v8 car worth 6 million rubles. The Oryol Metropolis, commenting on the information, noted that a car is not a purchase, but a gift, and recalled that Jesus Christ “also walked in expensive clothes” received from admirers.

The article was reprinted with abbreviations by the Oryol News portal. The day before, a scan of a letter from Bishop Nektariy appeared on the same site, which stated that “such antics undermine the spiritual and moral foundations of our society, casting a shadow on the Holy Church and its honest servants” (style and punctuation, including numerous errors, are preserved hereinafter .- Note website). “I am extremely outraged by your deceitful and offensive article posted on your Internet resource regarding My service to the Russian Orthodox Church and the people of God!” - added the priest.

At the end of the letter, the bishop states that he is giving the editors “the only chance to correct everything” and remove information concerning him “from your immoral media.” At the same time, Nektariy asked to delete a survey dedicated to him, in which readers are invited to express their opinion on how they feel about priests who own expensive property.

Journalist Denis Volin insisted on Ekho Moskvy that he tried to get comments from the bishop, but it was impossible to contact him. He stated that he had several letters on behalf of Bishop Nektary, and the style of their presentation coincides with the message that Oryol News received.

“If you look at the comments on this news on the Internet, it becomes clear that if someone offends the feelings of believers, it is clearly not journalists,” Volin added.

“The letter came to us in the mail yesterday at 16.50. It came on diocesan letterhead with the signature of Bishop Nektary and with a seal. We personally have no reason to doubt the authenticity of this letter. In addition, our specialists have now checked this letter: the seal, signature and words on the picture was not superimposed. That is, this is a photo of a real document. Is it fake or not, whether Nektary sent it or not Nektary - then we need to talk only about what is,” the journalist clarified in a commentary to the radio station “Moscow Speaks”.

Let us add that the Oryol Metropolis officially stated that they do not see an “information reason” in such a situation. “This car is a gift from one of the agricultural holdings. The gift is connected with the fact that the bishop carries out the bishop’s service, visits the most remote villages at any time of the year and in any weather. There is no manifestation of money-grubbing in this,” said the head of the information and analytical department of the metropolis Evgeny Borisov.

At the same time, anonymous Open Russia sources in the metropolitan area expressed bewilderment at the luxury car, which received a “government” series license plate.

"Each church transfers the so-called diocesan tax to the diocese. The amounts for each church per month are different: on average from 20 thousand to 400 thousand rubles. Depending on income. Then the tax to the patriarchy is separated from this money, several million, and the rest the money should go to public church work. Youth camps, brotherhoods, assistance to those in need (diocesan social department), repairs, construction, and so on. And here such cars are bought,” noted the Open Russia interlocutor.