A priest of the Russian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Oblast has turned services at his church into a demonstration of military equipment.

The report concerns the Transfiguration Church in the village of Savvino, where the rector is Archpriest Vitalii Kuleshov, according to Orthozombies.

Parishioners say the priest has turned the church into a shooting range.

“Honestly, we have stopped understanding where we are coming, to God’s church or to a shooting range. Recently the father has turned sermons and services into a real demonstration of military arsenal,” one parishioner says.

On one day, fully vested, he put a bulletproof vest on the altar server right in the middle of the service, in front of everyone. Another time, he brought a rubber model of a head onto the ambo and for half an hour explained what parts a helmet consists of, which are better and which are worse. On a third occasion, he simply displayed combat knives to the congregation.

“People are in shock. We come to pray and leave after a lecture on tactical training,” the parishioner says.

As reported, Archpriest Vitalii Kuleshov holds many church awards. He has long been involved in assisting the Russian army and even personally travels to the zone of the so called “special operation.”

As LF previously reported, at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in the settlement of Obukhovo near Moscow, whose rector is Archpriest Sergii Reshetniak, pupils from the Dinamit Center for Patriotic Education performed. The teenagers were dressed in military uniforms and carried assault rifles.