Governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is the largest religious association within the Russian Orthodox tradition, one of 16 local Orthodox churches. From the 10th to the 15th centuries it existed as metropolis(ecclesiastical region) of the Patriarchate of Constantinople; since 1448 actually independent(as a result of refusal to support the union of Constantinople with the Roman Catholic Church); in 1589 autocephaly The Russian Orthodox Church is officially recognized by the Eastern Patriarchates and established Moscow Patriarchate, which takes fifth place in a diptych of local Orthodox churches.

In 1721, the patriarchate in the Russian Orthodox Church was abolished and a state body of the Russian Empire for church administration was established - Holy Governing Synod, the formal head of which was the Emperor. The Patriarchate was restored in 1917, when the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected Tikhon (Belavin) Patriarch. After his death in 1925, the authorities prevented the convening of a new Council for the election of the Patriarch, allowing them to be held only in 1943 at the Council of Bishops, consisting of 19 people. Currently, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is Patriarch Alexy II, elected at the Local Council on June 10, 1990. He is the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. The Patriarch has three residences- official (in the St. Daniel Monastery), work (in Chisty Lane in the center of Moscow) and suburban (in Peredelkino). Chairs of the Patriarch located in three capital cathedrals - the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin, the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The Russian Orthodox Church has 128 dioceses in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (these countries are considered the “canonical territory” of the Russian Orthodox Church), as well as in the diaspora - Austria, Argentina, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, USA and Canada. There are parishes, representative offices and other canonical divisions of the Russian Orthodox Church in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico. The Russian Orthodox Church nominally includes Japanese Autonomous Orthodox Church, which is governed by an independent Metropolitan of All Japan, elected at the Council of this Church, and Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, which currently does not have its own hierarchy. The highest doctrinal, legislative, executive and judicial power in the Russian Orthodox Church belongs to To the local council, which includes all ruling (diocesan) bishops, as well as representatives from the clergy and laity of each diocese. According to the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was in force from 1988 to 2000, the Local Council was to be convened every five years, but in practice this requirement was not fulfilled: from 1990 to the present there has not been a single Local Council. In August 2000, the Council of Bishops adopted a new Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church , which does not stipulate the frequency of convening the Local Council, the exclusive competence of which only includes the election of the new Patriarch. The real fullness of ecclesiastical authority has been transferred Bishop'scathedral, which includes permanent members of the Holy Synod and ruling bishops. According to the Charter, in force since August 2000, the Council of Bishops is convened by the Synod at least onceevery four years(the previous Charter required its convening at least once every two years). The list of powers of the Council of Bishops is very wide. Even during the work of the Local Council, which theoretically can cancel the decisions of the bishop, all full church power belongs to Bishops' Conference, consisting of bishops - members of the Council. If a majority of the members of the Local Council votes for a particular decision, but this decision does not receive a majority of votes of the members of the Bishops' Council, it is considered adopted.

In the period between Councils of Bishops, the Church is governed by the Patriarchs Holy Synod, which is considered an advisory body under the Patriarch. In practice, the Patriarch makes the most important administrative decisions only with the consent of the Synod. The Holy Synod includes, in addition to the Patriarch, seven permanent members(Metropolitans of Krutitsky and Kolomna, St. Petersburg and Ladoga, Kiev and All Ukraine, Minsk and Slutsk, Chisinau and All Moldova, as well as the Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate and Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations - DECR MP) and six temporary summoned by the Synod itself to participate in meetings during only one synodal session. The meetings of the Synod are divided into two sessions - spring and autumn, each of which consists of two or three meetings, usually lasting two days. As a rule, the Holy Synod hears reports on the most important events in church life that took place between its meetings (such events include visits of the Patriarch, visits to the Russian Orthodox Church by heads of other local Churches, participation of official representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in major events of an all-Russian or international scale), and also establishes new dioceses, appoints and moves bishops, approves the opening of new monasteries and the appointment of their governors and abbess, opens and reorganizes theological educational institutions, opens new canonical structures of the Russian Orthodox Church in foreign countries and appoints their clergy. In exceptional cases, the Synod issues Messages that reflect the point of view of the church leadership on certain significant social problems (the last such Message was devoted to the problem of Taxpayer Identification Number and, more broadly, digital identification of citizens).

Over the past 10 years, the number of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church has doubled, and parishes almost tripled. According to information announced by Patriarch Alexy II at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church includes more than 19,000 parishes And about 480 monasteries.Pastoral service in the Russian Orthodox Church is carried out by more than 150 bishops,17,500 priests, 2,300 deacons. The dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by the diocesan bishop, are directly subordinate to the Patriarch and the Holy Synod (the Patriarch has his own diocese on the territory of Moscow, which is actually governed by his vicar). In the management of dioceses, bishops are assisted by the diocesan council and deans(priests who head church districts, usually uniting churches of one or more neighboring districts of a large city or region). For example, the territory of Moscow (more than 400 churches) is divided into 11 deaneries. Some large dioceses have vicars- auxiliary bishops, on whom the ruling bishop entrusts part of his responsibilities. There is a slight difference in the titles of diocesan and suffragan bishops - the diocesan bishop has a “double” title (for example: “Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga”), and the suffragan has a “single” title (for example: “Archbishop of Istra”). The Moscow diocese has the most vicars – about 10. This is due to the fact that some of them are titular bishops holding administrative positions in the central church apparatus (for example, heads of Synodal departments).

The hierarchy of the Orthodox Church is called “three-order” because it consists of three main levels: diaconate, priesthoodand bishops. Depending on their attitude towards marriage and lifestyle, the clergy is divided into two categories - "white"(married) And "black" (monastic). Deacons and priests can be either married (but only in their first marriage) or monastics, and bishops can only be monastics. Deacons They are assistants to bishops and priests during divine services, but they themselves cannot perform any of the seven main church sacraments. Priests only by the authority of their bishops and on their “instructions” can they perform all the sacraments, except for the priesthood - that is, ordination to the priesthood (this is performed only by the bishop). The bishop himself is ordained by several bishops, according to the decision of the Holy Synod. Bishops possess full sacramental and administrative-canonical power in the Church, therefore their persons are surrounded with special honor, and their divine services are performed according to a special, solemn rite (it is customary for bishops to address "lord", and to deacons and priests, as well as to monastics who do not have a hierarchical rank - "father"). Representatives of the “white” and “black” clergy have their own structures of honorary titles, which are awarded for “length of service” or for special services to the Church. These structures can be represented in the form of a table.

Hierarchical degree	"White" (married) clergy	"Black" (monastic) clergy
	Deacon Protodeacon	Hierodeacon Archdeacon
2. Priesthood	Priest (=priest) Archpriest Protopresbyter	Hieromonk Abbot Archimandrite
3. Bishopric		Bishop Archbishop Metropolitan Patriarch

Monasticism has its own internal hierarchy, consisting of three degrees (belonging to them usually does not depend on belonging to one or another hierarchical degree itself): monasticism(Rassophore), monasticism(small schema, small angelic image) and schema(great schema, great angelic image). The majority of modern monastics belong to the second degree - to monasticism proper, or the small schema. Only those monastics who have this particular degree can receive ordination to the rank of bishop. To the name of the rank of monastics who have accepted the great schema, the particle “schema” is added (for example, “schema-abbot” or “schema-metropolitan”). Belonging to one degree or another of monasticism implies a difference in the level of strictness of monastic life and is expressed through differences in monastic clothing. During monastic tonsure, three main vows are made - celibacy, obedience and non-covetousness, and a new name is assigned as a sign of the beginning of a new life.

In the modern Russian Orthodox Church, monasteries are managed by viceroy in the rank of archimandrite (less often in the rank of abbot or hieromonk; the vicar of one monastery has the rank of bishop), who “represents” in it rector- diocesan bishop. The largest and most famous monasteries, as well as monasteries of the capital, are "stauropygial"- their abbot is the Patriarch himself, represented in the monastery by the viceroy. Convents run by abbess having an honorary title abbess(less often the abbess is a simple nun). In large monasteries, there is an advisory body under the governor - Spiritual Cathedral. Monasteries may have their own farmstead(representative offices) in cities or villages, as well as monasteries and monasteries, located at some distance from the main monastery. For example, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius has Gethsemane and Bethany monasteries, and metochions in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In addition to the clergy who belong to one of the three levels of the church hierarchy, the Russian Orthodox Church also has clergy, or lower clergy, - subdeacons and readers. The former almost exclusively serve the bishop, while the latter read in the choir or perform sexton functions in the altar.

Under the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church there are a number of “branch departments” - Synodal departments, the most important of which is DECR MP(Chairman: Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill (Gundyaev)). The DECR MP itself defines the range of its tasks as follows: “Carrying out the hierarchical, administrative and financial management of dioceses, monasteries, parishes and other institutions of our Church in the far abroad; making decisions by the clergy concerning church-state and church-public relations; maintaining relations with the Russian Orthodox Church with local Orthodox churches, heterodox churches and religious associations, non-Christian religions, religious and secular international organizations, state, political, social, cultural, scientific, economic, financial and other similar institutions and organizations, the media." The chairman of the DECR MP, Metropolitan Kirill, is considered the most influential hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In most cases, future clergy receive a “professional” education in theological educational institutions, a network of which is led by Educational Committee Moscow Patriarchate (chairman - Archbishop of Vereisky Evgeniy (Reshetnikov)). Currently, the Russian Orthodox Church operates 5 spiritual academies(before 1917 there were only 4), 26 theological seminaries, 29 theological schools, 2 Orthodox universities And Theological Institute, women's religious school, 28 icon painting schools. The total number of students in theological schools reaches 6000 people. Patriarch Alexy II and diocesan bishops began to increasingly pay attention to a new alarming trend that has appeared in the system of theological education of the Russian Orthodox Church: only a small percentage of graduates of theological educational institutions continue their service to the Church in the priesthood.

Synodal Department of Religious Education and Catechesis(Chairman - Hegumen John (Ekonomtsev)) runs a network of educational institutions intended for the laity. This network includes Sunday schools at churches, circles for adults, groups for preparing adults for baptism, Orthodox kindergartens, Orthodox groups in state kindergartens, Orthodox gymnasiums, schools and lyceums, Orthodox catechist courses.

Under the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church there are also Department of Church Charity and Social Service(acting chairman - Metropolitan of Solnechnogorsk Sergius (Fomin)), Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies(acting chairman - Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov), Missionary department(chairman - Archbishop of Belgorod and Stary Oskol John (Popov)); Youth Affairs Department(chairman - Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich Alexander (Mogilev)); Publishing Council(chairman - Archpriest Vladimir Silovyov; he is also the editor-in-chief Publishing houses of the Moscow Patriarchate, issued by the official organ of the Russian Orthodox Church - "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate"), a number of temporary councils and commissions. Current administrative affairs are handled Case management(headed by Metropolitan Sergius (Fomin) of Solnechnogorsk) and office(headed by Archpriest Vladimir Divakov) of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Patriarchate is under direct control (and is considered the main source of its income) Artistic and production enterprise of the Russian Orthodox Church "Sofrino" And hotel complex "Danilovsky".

The welfare of the Orthodox Church rests not only on considerable assistance from the state, the generosity of patrons and donations from the flock - the Russian Orthodox Church also has its own business. But where the earnings are spent is still a secret

​The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill, spent half of February on long journeys. Negotiations with the Pope in Cuba, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, landing on Waterloo Island near the Antarctic coast, where Russian polar explorers from the Bellingshausen station live surrounded by Gentoo penguins.

To travel to Latin America, the patriarch and about a hundred accompanying people used an Il-96-300 aircraft with tail number RA-96018, which is operated by the Special Flight Detachment “Russia”. This airline is subordinate to the presidential administration and serves the top officials of the state ().

Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill at the Russian Bellingshausen station on the Island of Waterloo (Photo: Press service of the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church/TASS)

The authorities provide the head of the Russian Orthodox Church not only with air transport: the decree on allocating state security to the patriarch was one of the first decisions of President Vladimir Putin. Three of the four residences - in Chisty Lane in Moscow, Danilov Monastery and Peredelkino - were provided to the church by the state.

However, the ROC's income is not limited to the assistance of the state and big business. The church itself has learned to earn money.

RBC understood how the economy of the Russian Orthodox Church works.

Layered cake

“From an economic point of view, the Russian Orthodox Church is a gigantic corporation that unites tens of thousands of independent or semi-independent agents under a single name. They are every parish, monastery, priest,” sociologist Nikolai Mitrokhin wrote in his book “The Russian Orthodox Church: Current State and Current Problems.”

Indeed, unlike many public organizations, each parish is registered as a separate legal entity and religious NPO. Church income for conducting rites and ceremonies is not subject to taxation, and proceeds from the sale of religious literature and donations are not taxed. At the end of each year, religious organizations draw up a declaration: according to the latest data provided to RBC by the Federal Tax Service, in 2014 the church’s non-taxable income tax amounted to 5.6 billion rubles.

In the 2000s, Mitrokhin estimated the entire annual income of the Russian Orthodox Church at approximately $500 million, but the church itself rarely and reluctantly talks about its money. At the 1997 Council of Bishops, Patriarch Alexy II reported that the ROC received the bulk of its money from “managing its temporarily free funds, placing them in deposit accounts, purchasing government short-term bonds” and other securities, and from the income of commercial enterprises.

Three years later, Archbishop Clement, in an interview with Kommersant-Dengi magazine, will say for the first and last time what the church economy consists of: 5% of the patriarchate’s budget comes from diocesan contributions, 40% from sponsorship donations, 55% comes from earnings from commercial enterprises of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Now there are fewer sponsorship donations, and deductions from dioceses can amount to a third or about half of the general church budget, explains Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, who until December 2015 headed the department for relations between the church and society.

Church property

The confidence of an ordinary Muscovite in the rapid growth of the number of new Orthodox churches around does not greatly contradict the truth. Since 2009 alone, more than five thousand churches have been built and restored throughout the country, Patriarch Kirill announced these figures at the Council of Bishops in early February. These statistics include both churches built from scratch (mainly in Moscow; see how this activity is financed) and those given to the Russian Orthodox Church under the 2010 law “On the transfer of religious property to religious organizations.”

According to the document, Rosimushchestvo transfers objects to the Russian Orthodox Church in two ways - into ownership or under a free use agreement, explains Sergei Anoprienko, head of the department for the location of federal authorities of Rosimushchestvo.

RBC conducted an analysis of documents on the websites of territorial bodies of the Federal Property Management Agency - over the past four years, the Orthodox Church has received over 270 pieces of property in 45 regions (uploaded until January 27, 2016). The real estate area is indicated for only 45 objects - a total of about 55 thousand square meters. m. The largest object that became the property of the church is the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage.

A destroyed temple in the Kurilovo tract in the Shatura district of the Moscow region (Photo: Ilya Pitalev/TASS)

If real estate is transferred into ownership, Anoprienko explains, the parish receives a plot of land adjacent to the temple. Only church premises can be built on it - a utensils shop, a clergy house, a Sunday school, an almshouse, etc. It is prohibited to erect objects that can be used for economic purposes.

The Russian Orthodox Church received about 165 objects for free use, and about 100 for ownership, as follows from the data on the website of the Federal Property Management Agency. “Nothing surprising,” explains Anoprienko. “The church chooses free use, because in this case it can use government funding and count on subsidies for the restoration and maintenance of churches from the authorities. If the property is owned, all responsibility will fall on the Russian Orthodox Church.”

In 2015, the Federal Property Management Agency offered the Russian Orthodox Church to take 1,971 objects, but so far only 212 applications have been received, says Anoprienko. The head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate, Abbess Ksenia (Chernega), is convinced that only destroyed buildings are given to churches. “When the law was discussed, we compromised and did not insist on restitution of property lost by the church. Now, as a rule, we are not offered a single normal building in large cities, but only ruined objects that require large expenses. We took a lot of destroyed churches in the 90s, and now, understandably, we wanted to get something better,” she says. The church, according to the abbess, will “fight for the necessary objects.”

The loudest battle is for St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg

St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg (Photo: Roshchin Alexander/TASS)

In July 2015, Metropolitan Barsanuphius of St. Petersburg and Ladoga addressed the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko with a request to give the famous Isaac for free use. This called into question the work of the museum located in the cathedral, a scandal ensued - the media wrote about the transfer of the monument on the front pages, a petition demanding to prevent the transfer of the cathedral collected over 85 thousand signatures on change.org.

In September, the authorities decided to leave the cathedral on the city's balance sheet, but Nikolai Burov, director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum complex (which includes three other cathedrals), is still waiting for a catch.

The complex does not receive money from the budget, 750 million rubles. He earns his annual allowance himself - from tickets, Burov is proud. In his opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church wants to open the cathedral only for worship, “jeopardizing free visits” to the site.

“Everything continues in the spirit of the “best Soviet” traditions - the temple is used as a museum, the museum management behaves like real atheists!” — counters Burov’s opponent, Archpriest Alexander Pelin from the St. Petersburg diocese.

“Why does the museum dominate the temple? Everything should be the other way around - first the temple, since this was originally intended by our pious ancestors,” the priest is outraged. The church, Pelin has no doubt, has the right to collect donations from visitors.

Budget money

“If you are supported by the state, you are closely connected with it, there are no options,” reflects priest Alexei Uminsky, rector of the Trinity Church in Khokhly. The current church interacts too closely with the authorities, he believes. However, his views do not coincide with the opinion of the leadership of the patriarchate.

According to RBC estimates, in 2012-2015, the Russian Orthodox Church and related structures received at least 14 billion rubles from the budget and from government organizations. Moreover, the new version of the budget for 2016 alone provides for 2.6 billion rubles.

Next to the Sofrino trading house on Prechistenka there is one of the branches of the ASVT group of telecommunications companies. Parkhaev also owned 10.7% of the company until at least 2009. The co-founder of the company (through JSC Russdo) is the co-chairman of the Union of Orthodox Women Anastasia Ositis, Irina Fedulova. ASVT's revenue for 2014 was over 436.7 million rubles, profit - 64 million rubles. Ositis, Fedulova and Parkhaev did not respond to questions for this article.

Parkhaev was listed as the chairman of the board of directors and owner of the Sofrino bank (until 2006 it was called Old Bank). The Central Bank revoked the license of this financial institution in June 2014. Judging by SPARK data, the owners of the bank are Alemazh LLC, Stek-T LLC, Elbin-M LLC, Sian-M LLC and Mekona-M LLC. According to the Central Bank, the beneficiary of these companies is Dmitry Malyshev, ex-chairman of the board of Sofrino Bank and representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in government bodies.

Immediately after the renaming of Old Bank to Sofrino, the Housing Construction Company (HCC), founded by Malyshev and partners, received several large contracts from the Russian Orthodox Church: in 2006, the Housing Construction Company won 36 competitions announced by the Ministry of Culture (formerly Roskultura) for the restoration temples. The total volume of contracts is 60 million rubles.

Parhaev’s biography from the website parhaev.com reports the following: born on June 19, 1941 in Moscow, worked as a turner at the Krasny Proletary plant, in 1965 he came to work at the Patriarchate, participated in the restoration of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and enjoyed the favor of Patriarch Pimen. Parkhaev’s activities are described not without picturesque details: “Evgeniy Alekseevich provided the construction with everything necessary,<…>solved all the problems, and trucks with sand, bricks, cement, and metal went to the construction site.”

Parkhaev’s energy, the unknown biographer continues, is enough to manage, with the blessing of the patriarch, the Danilovskaya Hotel: “This is a modern and comfortable hotel, in the conference hall of which local cathedrals, religious and peace conferences, and concerts are held. The hotel needed just such a leader: experienced and purposeful.”

The daily cost of a single room at Danilovskaya with breakfast on weekdays is 6,300 rubles, an apartment is 13 thousand rubles, services include a sauna, bar, car rental and organization of events. The income of Danilovskaya in 2013 was 137.4 million rubles, in 2014 - 112 million rubles.

Parkhaev is a man from the team of Alexy II, who managed to prove his indispensability to Patriarch Kirill, RBC’s interlocutor in the company producing church products is sure. The permanent head of Sofrino enjoys privileges that even prominent priests are deprived of, confirms an RBC source in one of the large dioceses. In 2012, photographs from Parkhaev’s anniversary appeared on the Internet - the holiday was celebrated with pomp in the hall of the church councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. After this, the guests of the hero of the day went by boat to Parkhaev’s dacha in the Moscow region. The photographs, the authenticity of which no one has disputed, show an impressive cottage, a tennis court and a pier with boats.

From cemeteries to T-shirts

The sphere of interests of the Russian Orthodox Church includes medicines, jewelry, renting out conference rooms, Vedomosti wrote, as well as agriculture and the funeral services market. According to the SPARK database, the Patriarchate is a co-owner of Orthodox Ritual Service CJSC: the company is now closed, but a subsidiary established by it, Orthodox Ritual Service OJSC, is operating (revenue for 2014 - 58.4 million rubles).

The Ekaterinburg diocese owned a large granite quarry "Granit" and the security company "Derzhava", the Vologda diocese had a factory of reinforced concrete products and structures. The Kemerovo diocese is the 100% owner of Kuzbass Investment and Construction Company LLC, a co-owner of the Novokuznetsk Computer Center and the Europe Media Kuzbass agency.

In the Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow there are several retail outlets: the monastery shop and the Danilovsky Souvenir store. You can buy church utensils, leather wallets, T-shirts with Orthodox prints, and Orthodox literature. The monastery does not disclose financial indicators. On the territory of the Sretensky Monastery there is a store “Sretenie” and a cafe “Unholy Saints”, named after the book of the same name by the abbot, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov). The cafe, according to the bishop, “doesn’t bring in any money.” The main source of income for the monastery is publishing. The monastery owns land in the agricultural cooperative “Resurrection” (the former collective farm “Voskhod”; the main activity is the cultivation of grain and legumes, and livestock). Revenue for 2014 was 52.3 million rubles, profit was about 14 million rubles.

Finally, since 2012, structures of the Russian Orthodox Church have owned the building of the Universitetskaya Hotel in the southwest of Moscow. The cost of a standard single room is 3 thousand rubles. The pilgrimage center of the Russian Orthodox Church is located in this hotel. “In Universitetskaya there is a large hall, you can hold conferences and accommodate people who come to events. The hotel, of course, is cheap, very simple people stay there, very rarely bishops,” Chapnin told RBC.

Church cash desk

Archpriest Chaplin was unable to realize his long-standing idea - a banking system that eliminated usurious interest. While Orthodox banking exists only in words, the Patriarchate uses the services of the most ordinary banks.

Until recently, the church had accounts in three organizations - Ergobank, Vneshprombank and Peresvet Bank (the latter is also owned by structures of the Russian Orthodox Church). The salaries of employees of the Synodal Department of the Patriarchate, according to RBC's source in the Russian Orthodox Church, were transferred to accounts in Sberbank and Promsvyazbank (the banks' press services did not respond to RBC's request; a source close to Promsvyazbank said that the bank, among other things, holds church funds parishes).

Ergobank served more than 60 Orthodox organizations and 18 dioceses, including the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Compound of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. In January, the bank's license was revoked due to a hole discovered in its balance sheet.

The church agreed to open accounts with Ergobank because of one of its shareholders, Valery Meshalkin (about 20%), explains RBC’s interlocutor in the patriarchate. “Meshalkin is a church man, an Orthodox businessman who helped churches a lot. It was believed that this was a guarantee that nothing would happen to the bank,” the source describes.

Ergobank office in Moscow (Photo: Sharifulin Valery/TASS)

Valery Meshalkin is the owner of the construction and installation company Energomashcapital, a member of the board of trustees of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the author of the book “The Influence of the Holy Mount Athos on the Monastic Traditions of Eastern Europe.” Meshalkin did not answer RBC's questions. As a source in Ergobank told RBC, money was withdrawn from the accounts of the ROC structure before the license was revoked.

In what turned out to be no less problematic, 1.5 billion rubles. ROC, a source in the bank told RBC and was confirmed by two interlocutors close to the patriarchate. The bank's license was also revoked in January. According to one of RBC's interlocutors, the chairman of the board of the bank, Larisa Marcus, was close to the patriarchate and its leadership, so the church chose this bank to store part of its money. According to RBC's interlocutors, in addition to the Patriarchate, several funds that carried out the instructions of the Patriarch kept funds in Vneshprombank. The largest is the Foundation of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen. An RBC source in the Patriarchate said that the foundation collected money to help victims of the conflicts in Syria and Donetsk. Information about fundraising is also available on the Internet.

The founders of the fund are Anastasia Ositis and Irina Fedulova, already mentioned in connection with the Russian Orthodox Church. In the past - at least until 2008 - Ositis and Fedulova were shareholders of Vneshprombank.

However, the main bank of the church is the Moscow Peresvet. As of December 1, 2015, the bank’s accounts held funds of enterprises and organizations (RUB 85.8 billion) and individuals (RUB 20.2 billion). Assets as of January 1 were 186 billion rubles, more than half of which were loans to companies, the bank’s profit was 2.5 billion rubles. There are over 3.2 billion rubles in the accounts of non-profit organizations, as follows from the reporting of Peresvet.

The financial and economic management of the ROC owns 36.5% of the bank, another 13.2% is owned by the ROC-owned company Sodeystvie LLC. Other owners include Vnukovo-invest LLC (1.7%). The office of this company is located at the same address as Assistance. An employee of Vnukovo-invest could not explain to an RBC correspondent whether there was a connection between his company and Sodeystvo. The phones at the Assistance office are not answered.

JSCB Peresvet could cost up to 14 billion rubles, and the share of ROC in the amount of 49.7%, presumably, up to 7 billion rubles, IFC Markets analyst Dmitry Lukashov calculated for RBC.

Investments and innovations

Not much is known about where ROC funds are invested by banks. But it is known for sure that the Russian Orthodox Church does not shy away from venture investments.

Peresvet invests money in innovative projects through the Sberinvest company, in which the bank owns 18.8%. Funding for innovation is shared: 50% of the money is provided by Sberinvest investors (including Peresvet), 50% by state corporations and foundations. Funds for projects co-financed by Sberinvest were found in the Russian Venture Company (the press service of RVC refused to name the amount of funds), the Skolkovo Foundation (the fund invested 5 million rubles in developments, a representative of the fund said) and the state corporation Rusnano (on Sberinvest projects have been allocated $50 million, a press service employee said).

The press service of the RBC state corporation explained: to finance joint projects with Sberinvest, the international Nanoenergo fund was created in 2012. Rusnano and Peresvet each invested $50 million into the fund.

In 2015, the Rusnano Capital Fund S.A. - a subsidiary of Rusnano - appealed to the District Court of Nicosia (Cyprus) with a request to recognize Peresvet Bank as a co-defendant in the case of violation of the investment agreement. The statement of claim (available to RBC) states that the bank, in violation of procedures, transferred “$90 million from the accounts of Nanoenergo to the accounts of Russian companies affiliated with Sberinvest.” The accounts of these companies were opened in Peresvet.

The court recognized Peresvet as one of the co-defendants. Representatives of Sberinvest and Rusnano confirmed to RBC the existence of a lawsuit.

“This is all some kind of nonsense,” Oleg Dyachenko, a member of the board of directors of Sberinvest, does not lose heart in a conversation with RBC. “We have good energy projects with Rusnano, everything is going on, everything is moving - a composite pipe plant has fully entered the market, silicon dioxide is at a very high level, we process rice, we produce heat, we have reached an export position.” In response to the question of where the money went, the top manager laughs: “You see, I’m free. So the money wasn’t lost.” Dyachenko believes that the case will be closed.

The press service of Peresvet did not respond to RBC’s repeated requests. The chairman of the board of the bank, Alexander Shvets, did the same.

Income and expenses

“Since Soviet times, the church economy has been opaque,” ​​explains rector Alexei Uminsky, “it is built on the principle of a public service center: parishioners give money for some service, but no one is interested in how it is distributed. And the parish priests themselves don’t know exactly where the money they collect goes.”

Indeed, it is impossible to calculate church expenses: the Russian Orthodox Church does not announce tenders and does not appear on the government procurement website. In economic activities, the church, says Abbess Ksenia (Chernega), “does not hire contractors”, managing on its own - food is supplied by monasteries, candles are melted by workshops. The multi-layered pie is divided within the Russian Orthodox Church.

“What does the church spend on?” - the abbess asks again and answers: “Theological seminaries throughout Russia are maintained, this is a fairly large share of the expenses.” The church also provides charitable assistance to orphans and other social institutions; all synodal departments are financed from the general church budget, she adds.

The Patriarchate did not provide RBC with data on the expenditure items of its budget. In 2006, in the Foma magazine, Natalya Deryuzhkina, at that time an accountant for the Patriarchate, estimated the costs of maintaining the Moscow and St. Petersburg theological seminaries at 60 million rubles. in year.

Such expenses are still relevant today, confirms Archpriest Chaplin. Also, the priest clarifies, it is necessary to pay salaries to the secular staff of the patriarchate. In total, this is 200 people with an average salary of 40 thousand rubles. per month, says RBC’s source in the patriarchy.

These expenses are insignificant compared to the annual contributions of the dioceses to Moscow. What happens to all the rest of the money?

A few days after the scandalous resignation, Archpriest Chaplin opened an account on Facebook, where he wrote: “Understanding everything, I consider concealing income and especially expenses of the central church budget to be completely immoral. In principle, there cannot be the slightest Christian justification for such a concealment.”

There is no need to disclose the items of expenditure of the Russian Orthodox Church, since it is absolutely clear what the church spends money on - for church needs, the chairman of the synodal department for relations between the church and society and the media, Vladimir Legoida, reproached the RBC correspondent.

How do other churches live?

It is not customary to publish reports on the income and expenses of a church, regardless of denominational affiliation.

Dioceses of Germany

The recent exception has been the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), which partially discloses income and expenses. Thus, the dioceses of Germany began to disclose their financial indicators after the scandal with the Bishop of Limburg, for whom they began to build a new residence in 2010. In 2010, the diocese valued the work at €5.5 million, but three years later the cost almost doubled to €9.85 million. To avoid claims in the press, many dioceses began to disclose their budgets. According to reports, the budget of the RCC dioceses consists of property income, donations, as well as church taxes, which are levied on parishioners. According to 2014 data, the diocese of Cologne became the richest (its income is €772 million, tax revenue is €589 million). According to the plan for 2015, the total expenditures of the diocese were estimated at 800 million.

Vatican Bank

Data on the financial transactions of the Institute of Religious Affairs (IOR, Istituto per le Opere di Religione), better known as the Vatican Bank, is now being published. The bank was created in 1942 to manage the financial resources of the Holy See. The Vatican Bank published its first financial report in 2013. According to the report, in 2012 the bank's profit amounted to €86.6 million, a year earlier - €20.3 million. Net interest income was €52.25 million, income from trading activities was €51.1 million.

Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR)

Unlike Catholic dioceses, reports on the income and expenses of the ROCOR are not published. According to Archpriest Peter Kholodny, who was the treasurer of the ROCOR for a long time, the economy of the foreign church is simple: parishes pay contributions to the dioceses of the ROCOR, and they transfer the money to the Synod. The percentage of annual contributions for parishes is 10%; 5% is transferred from dioceses to the Synod. The wealthiest dioceses are in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the USA.

The main income of the ROCOR, according to Kholodny, comes from renting out the four-story Synod building: it is located in the upper part of Manhattan, on the corner of Park Avenue and 93rd Street. The area of ​​the building is 4 thousand square meters. m, 80% is occupied by the Synod, the rest is rented to a private school. Annual rental income, according to Kholodny’s estimates, is about $500 thousand.

In addition, the ROCOR's income comes from the Kursk Root Icon (located in the ROCOR Cathedral of the Sign in New York). The icon is taken all over the world, donations go to the budget of the foreign church, explains Kholodny. The ROCOR Synod also owns a candle factory near New York. The ROCOR does not transfer money to the Moscow Patriarchate: “Our church is much poorer than the Russian one. Although we own incredibly valuable tracts of land—particularly half of the Garden of Gethsemane—it is not monetized in any way.”

With the participation of Tatyana Aleshkina, Yulia Titova, Svetlana Bocharova, Georgy Makarenko, Irina Malkova

January 15th, 2014

Hello dears!
Today we will continue with you the topic started here: and continued here:
But you and I got a little distracted. Perhaps we’ll finish with the structure in order to go further in the next post (already next week).
The main structural unit is the parish. What is meant by parish is not at all what drug addicted citizens mean, but a certain territorial district in which there is an Orthodox church with by the way(that is, with clergy and clergy) who performs church rites for the laity (parishioners). :-) The word “parish” comes (like many things in Orthodoxy, which is natural) from the Greek language. The term παροικία can be literally translated as what is near the house. According to the latest data, the Russian Orthodox Church has more than 30,000 parishes. How my good friend and a person in the subject corrected me a little mka (I recommend his magazine to everyone) several parishes located in close proximity to each other are united on a territorial basis into deaneries (dean offices), headed by a dean (dean). I initially thought that deanery was an outdated system - but it turns out it’s not :-) Previously, it was very common, especially among the military clergy.

In addition to parishes, there are several other types of smallest, so to speak, territorial units of the Church - monasteries, hermitages, metochions, brotherhoods (sisterhoods) and missions.


The Assumption Metochion of the Optina Pustyn Monastery in St. Petersburg

A monastery means an association of monks or nuns (we’ll talk about this later), living in one complex of buildings and obeying one monastic charter under the control of an abbot (abbess), that is, abbot (we’ll also mention this later).

Pustyn is a separate settlement, remote from the monastery, usually for the residence of ascetics. A metochion is real estate belonging to a specific monastery, far from that very monastery. Previously, this system was actively used as a place of overnight stay for pilgrims going to pay their respects to this particular monastery, but now the system has changed somewhat. It is rather a “branch” of a particular monastery.

Brotherhoods and sisterhoods are almost a complete anachronism. This system of uniting Orthodox people in territories where another religion was used was intensively used. Particularly famous are the Orthodox brotherhoods of the 14th-17th centuries in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Seal of the famous Lviv Orthodox brotherhood.

And finally, a mission is a pastoral and missionary institution that set the task of reviving Orthodox church life or introducing people of other faiths and pagans to Orthodoxy. Nowadays it is also an anachronism.

The next and larger administrative-territorial unit is the diocese. It is headed by a bishop (bishop) and includes both parishes in a certain territory, as well as monasteries, deaneries, diocesan institutions, metochions, religious educational institutions, brotherhoods, sisterhoods and missions. At the moment there are 160 dioceses in the Russian Orthodox Church.

In addition, there is such an organization of the church community as a vicariate (vicar diocese). This is a union of several deaneries or parishes, which are subordinate not to the diocesan bishop, but to a special bishop - a vicar (more on this later)

Tikhon, Bishop of Podolsk, Vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'

With larger units everything is more complicated. Since 2011, a 3-tier system of subordination has been implemented within the Russian Orthodox Church, namely Diocese - Metropolis - Patriarchate (that is, the apparatus of the Patriarch). Thus, the metropolitanate, which includes dioceses and vicariates, should be the largest administrative-territorial Russian Orthodox Church. It should, but it isn't. There are currently 46 metropolitanates in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Metropolis is governed by the Metropolitan.

But there are also metropolitan districts, which are governed by a local synod chaired by the head of the metropolitan district. At the moment, the Russian Orthodox Church has 2 metropolitan districts - the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District and the Central Asian Metropolitan District.

Dioceses of the Orthodox Church of Moldova

But that's not all. Not everyone. Within the Russian Orthodox Church, at the moment, there are still church organizations of the same level as the metropolis and the metropolitan district, and even higher - 1 exarchate, 3 self-governing churches, 2 autonomous churches and two more self-governing with broad autonomy. It's complicated:-)))

3 self-governing churches exist in territories where there are disputes with other Autocephalous Orthodox Churches. These are the Orthodox Church of Moldova (disputes with the Romanian Orthodox Church), the Latvian Orthodox Church (former disputes with the Orthodox Church of Constantinople) and the Estonian Orthodox Church (disputes with the Orthodox Church of Constantinople). The autonomy of such churches is limited. They act on the basis of a special decree of the Patriarch, which is called “Tomos”.


Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Tallinn - stauropegial cathedral of the Estonian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a self-governing church with broad autonomy. Such a rare status is quite understandable, given the situation in the early 90s, when the Orthodox Church in Ukraine had serious conflicts with the Uniates, as well as major internal problems, as a result of which it was divided into the UOC MP (Moscow Patriarchate) and the UOC KP (Kyiv Patriarchate), autocephaly is not recognized. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has the same status, which after the signing of the Act on Canonical Communion in 2007 became part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Primate of the ROCOR Hilarion

The Chinese and Japanese Orthodox Churches have the status of an Autonomous Church within the Russian Orthodox Church. The first actually exists only on paper, and the latter is headed by the well-known Metropolitan of Tokyo and All Japan Daniel (in the world Ikuo Nushiro), a man who for a long time was the leader in online voting regarding the election of the new Patriarch in 2009. Autonomous Church - has the most complete autonomy and is closest to autocephalous status.

Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo and All Japan.

And finally, the Belarusian Orthodox Church within the Russian Orthodox Church has the status of an Exarchate. An exarchate is an administrative-territorial unit in a given Orthodox Church, foreign to the state of a particular patriarch, headed by an exarch, that is, the vicar of the Patriarch. This exarchate was created back in 1989 and in its status it is close to a self-governing church. Back in 1990, the Russian Orthodox Church had 3 exarchates, but only one remained - the Belarusian one.

Dioceses of the Belarusian Exarchate.

It seems that we have at least decided on the structure.
It remains only to add about the educational institutions of the Church. There are 4 levels of training possible. Grassroots is a religious school, which is equivalent to secondary specialized education. That is, by and large, this is a school with in-depth study of the Law of God. There are currently 33 religious schools.

The step above is the Seminary (from the Latin term seminarium - nursery). Seminaries are already preparing future clergy. Nowadays, the teaching in the Seminary is much more complex than just a couple of years ago, and this is due to the reform of church education carried out by Patriarch Kirill.
The Russian Orthodox Church currently has 52 theological seminaries, including such exotic ones as Tokyo and the seminary in Jordanville (USA)

The next level is institutions of higher professional religious education, which include religious universities and institutes. There are 8 of them, and the most famous, perhaps, will be the Russian Orthodox University. Not only future (and current) priests, but also ordinary applicants can enter the same RPU.

Well, the top level of spiritual education is studying at the Theological Academy. There are 6 of them. Plus one Church-wide graduate school and doctoral program named after St. Cyril and Methodius.


Emblem Church postgraduate and doctoral studies

The current system of higher theological education in Russia should be 3-stage:
1) Bachelor's degree: 4 compulsory years + 1 practical year of study and defense of the Thesis for the degree “B” Bachelor of Divinity».
2) Mgraduate school: 2-year program at a higher educational institution - the Theological Academy, and after defending the Dissertation, the apologist receives the degree “M” Master of Theology».
3) Postgraduate studies: 3-year program at the Theological Academy, the result of which is the writing of a Candidate's dissertation for the degree of “Candidate of Theological Sciences”.
That's all for now, next week we'll talk about the ranks and attire of clergy.
To be continued...
Have a nice day!

Every denomination in the world has a leader, for example, the head of the Orthodox Church is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.

But besides him, the church has another leadership structure.

Who is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Kirill is the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill

He leads the church life of the country, and the Patriarch is also the head of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and several other monasteries.

What is the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church among clergy

In fact, the church has a rather complex structure and hierarchy. Each clergyman fulfills his role and takes his assigned place in this system.

The scheme of the Orthodox Church has three levels, which were created at the very beginning of the birth of the Christian religion. All servants are divided into the following categories:

1. Deacons.
2. Priests.
3. Bishops.

In addition, they are divided into “black” and “white” clergy. “Black” includes monks, and “white” includes lay clergy.

Structure of the Russian Orthodox Church - diagram and description

Due to some complexity of the church structure, it is worth considering in more detail, for a deep understanding of the algorithms of the work of priests.

Bishop titles

These include:

1. Patriarch: the lifelong main title of the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, at the moment in Rus' this is Kirill.
2. Vicar: the bishop's right hand, his deputy, but he does not have his own diocese and cannot manage the bishop's diocese.
3. Metropolitan: the governor who leads the metropolitan areas, including those outside the Russian Federation.
4. Archbishop: The rank of senior bishop, considered an honorary title.
5. Bishop: The third level of priesthood in the Orthodox hierarchy, often with the rank of bishop, governs a diocese and is appointed by the Holy Synod.

Titles of priests

The priests are divided into “black” and “white”.

Consider the “black” clergy:

1. Hieromonk: a monk-clergyman, it is customary to address him with the words: “Your Reverence.”
2. Hegumen: head (abbot) of a monastery. Until 2011 in Russia, this title was honorary and did not necessarily correspond to the post of head of any monastery.
3. Archimandrite: the highest rank for a clergyman who has taken monastic vows. He is often the abbot of large monastic monasteries.

The “white” ranks include:

1. Protopresbyter: the highest rank of the Russian Orthodox Church in its “white” part. Given as a reward for special service in some cases and only at the request of the Holy Synod.
2. Archpriest: senior priest, the wording can also be used: senior priest. Most often, the archpriest presides over a church. You can receive such a position no earlier than five years of faithful service upon receipt of the pectoral cross and no earlier than ten years after consecration.
3. Priest: junior rank of clergy. The priest may be married. It is customary to address such a person as follows: “Father” or “Father, …”, where after the father comes the name of the priest.

Titles of deacons

Next comes the level of deacons, they are also divided into “black” and “white” clergy.

List of "Black" clergy:

1. Archdeacon: the senior rank among deacons in a monastic monastery. It is given for special merits and length of service.
2. Hierodeacon: priest-monk of any monastery. You can become a hierodeacon after the sacrament of ordination and tonsure as a monk.

"White":

1. Protodeacon: the main diocesan deacon; like the archdeacon, it is customary to address him with the words: “Your high gospel.”
2. Deacon: a priest who stands at the very beginning of the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. These are assistants for the rest of the higher ranks of clergy.

Conclusion

The Russian Orthodox Church has a complex but logical organization at the same time. The basic rule should be understood: its structure is such that it is impossible to get from the “white” clergy to the “black” without monastic tonsure, and it is also impossible to occupy many high positions in the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church without being a monk.

Victor Eremeev, Big City,

How the Russian Orthodox Church works

Patriarch

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church bears the title “His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'” (but from the point of view of Christian theology, the head of the church is Christ, and the patriarch is the primate). His name is commemorated during the main Orthodox service, the liturgy, in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch is de jure accountable to the Local and Bishops' Councils: he is “first among equals” of bishops and governs only the Moscow diocese. De facto, church power is very highly centralized.

The Russian Church was not always headed by a patriarch: there was no patriarch from the baptism of Rus' in 988 until 1589 (governed by the metropolitans of Kiev and Moscow), from 1721 to 1917 (governed by the “Department of Orthodox Confession” - the Synod headed by the chief prosecutor) and from 1925 to 1943.

Synod

The Holy Synod deals with personnel issues - including the election of new bishops and their movement from diocese to diocese, as well as the approval of the composition of the so-called patriarchal commissions dealing with the canonization of saints, matters of monasticism, etc. It is on behalf of the Synod that the main church reform of Patriarch Kirill is carried out - the disaggregation of dioceses: dioceses are divided into smaller ones - it is believed that this way they are easier to manage, and bishops become closer to the people and the clergy.

The Synod convenes several times a year and consists of one and a half dozen metropolitans and bishops. Two of them - the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Barsanuphius of Saransk and Mordovia, and the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk - are considered the most influential people in the patriarchate. The head of the Synod is the patriarch.

Local cathedral

The collegial highest governing body of the church. All layers of the church people are represented in it - delegates from the episcopate, white clergy, monks of both sexes and laity. A local council is called to distinguish it from the Ecumenical Council, at which delegates from all sixteen Orthodox churches of the world should gather to resolve pan-Orthodox issues (however, the Ecumenical Council has not been held since the 14th century). It was believed (and was enshrined in the charter of the church) that it was the local councils that held the highest power in the Russian Orthodox Church; in fact, over the past century, the council was convened only to elect a new patriarch. This practice was finally legalized in the new edition of the charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopted in February 2013.

The difference is not just formal: the idea of ​​the Local Council is that the church includes people of different ranks; although they are not equal to each other, they become a church only together. This idea is usually called conciliarity, emphasizing that this is the nature of the Orthodox Church, in contrast to the Catholic Church with its rigid hierarchy. Today this idea is becoming less and less popular in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Bishops' Council

The Congress of all bishops of the Russian Church, which takes place at least once every four years. It is the Council of Bishops that decides all the main church issues. During the three years of Kirill's patriarchate, the number of bishops increased by about a third - today there are about 300 of them. The work of the cathedral begins with the report of the patriarch - this is always the most complete (including statistical) information about the state of affairs in the church. No one is present at the meetings, except for the bishops and a narrow circle of employees of the Patriarchate.

​Inter-conciliar presence

A new advisory body, the creation of which became one of the symbols of Patriarch Kirill’s reforms. By design, it is extremely democratic: it includes expert experts from various areas of church life - bishops, priests and laity. There are even a few women. Consists of a presidium and 13 thematic commissions. The Inter-Council Presence prepares draft documents, which are then discussed in the public domain (including in a special community on LiveJournal).

Over the four years of work, the loudest discussions flared up around documents on the Church Slavonic and Russian languages ​​of worship and regulations on monasticism, which encroached on the structure of life of monastic communities.

​Supreme Church Council

​A new, rather mysterious body of church governance was created in 2011 during the reforms of Patriarch Kirill. This is a kind of church cabinet of ministers: it includes all the heads of synodal departments, committees and commissions, and is headed by the Patriarch of the All-Russian Central Council. The only body of the highest church government (except for the Local Council), in the work of which lay people take part. No one is allowed to attend the meetings of the All-Russian Central Council except members of the council; its decisions are never published and are strictly classified; you can only learn anything about the All-Russian Central Council from the official news on the Patriarchate website. The only public decision of the All-Russian Central Council was a statement after the announcement of the Pussy Riot verdict, in which the church distanced itself from the court decision.