Between 25 and 30 January 2026, the International Christmas Readings (the annual forum of the Russian Orthodox Church chaired by Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow) will see the ROC speak about defending the “Russian world”, which it claims will bring about Russia’s transformation, about the “spiritual meanings” of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, and about the specific features of its ministry within the armed forces and law-enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation. This is evidenced by a special circular issued by the Moscow Patriarchate, recently circulated among ROC dioceses and obtained by LibertasFidei.

“Taking into account society’s particular attention to the successes of our victorious Russian army, of which the military clergy are also a part, the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law-Enforcement Agencies, with the support of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation […] is organising, as part of the International Christmas Readings, a conference under the headline ‘The Defence of Orthodoxy and the Russian World as the Guarantee of Russia’s Transformation’,” the circular states, obliging clergy to attend the conference.

The conference agenda lists the following topics:

• The ministry and practical actions of a military priest in the zone of active hostilities.
• The place and role of the military priest in the educational process of higher and secondary military educational institutions: experience, problems, and ways to resolve them (taking into account the experience of conducting the “special military operation”).
• The spiritual meanings of the “special military operation”.

LF Commentary

Such internal circulars from the Moscow Patriarchate provide insight into the process of primitivising the ROC clergy and into the depth of the fusion between the Russian Church and the Russian armed forces. In effect, the ROC is underlining its identity with that part of the Russian army that is waging a war of annihilation against Ukraine. Our attention was also drawn to the structure of the ROC’s military synodal department, which includes several separate areas dedicated to interaction with the armed forces and law-enforcement agencies, including the Interior Ministry and the National Guard (Rosgvardia).

Judging by the content of the circular, Russian military-church officials, at a conference dedicated to the bright feast of Christmas, will be seeking “spiritual meanings” in the mass killing of Ukrainians, while also instructing ROC priests on how to take part in military aggression.

It is also noteworthy that Moscow is making efforts to carefully safeguard the ROC’s positions in countries that fall within its geopolitical interests and over which its imperial ambitions extend.

A recent official statement by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, demonstrates how seriously the Kremlin treats the issue of its “church” presence and influence in European countries:

Characteristically, the Russian Federation treats the religious space of European countries effectively as its own “church colonies”, referring to “Russian Orthodoxy in the territory of the Baltic states” and stating that “Bartholomew has found common ground with the authorities of the Baltic states in an effort to sow discord in the Russian Orthodox world”. The Russian intelligence service is not accidentally focusing its protest note on the Baltic states: previously, the Kremlin, speaking through Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, explicitly described the Baltic region as being “historically within the jurisdiction of the Russian Church”.

The stylistic features of the SVR statement also deserve particular attention. The note from a state intelligence structure is couched in language that sharply contrasts with diplomatic tradition and instead resembles a medieval ecclesiastical discourse: “the devil incarnate”, “mired in the mortal sin of schism”, “the Constantinopolitan Antichrist”. This points to the true state of affairs: in Russia, church officials and intelligence officers may not literally sit in neighbouring offices, but they certainly coordinate closely with one another.

According to official statements by the ROC’s synodal department, since 2022 at least 2,500 ROC priests have taken direct part in the “special military operation” against Ukraine. This testifies to the encouragement of, and direct participation by, the Russian Church in violations of state borders, mass killings, genocide of the populations of other countries, and the deaths of its own citizens “in the name of victory”. It is also telling that the number of ROC clergy who have publicly opposed the war stands at only around 60 people. Compared with the officially stated total of approximately 40,000 ROC clergy, this is not even one hundredth.

In its own way, this is a verdict that the ROC has passed on itself: not the Church of Christ, but a military-political structure in the service of the forces of evil.