As you know, many Russian liberals hate both the Church of Christ and the priests of the True God. But there is one priest whom liberals love very much and willingly invite to Ekho Moskvy and Novaya Gazeta. This is the modernist Archpriest Alexy Uminsky , who constantly broadcasts more and more false teachings to the world. And recently this man completely committed a spiritual crime - people who believed him are doomed not only to eternal afterlife suffering, but also to a life darkened by mental anguish.
The first steps on the path to faith
It would seem that the path of life was determined, but it was during his years of study that Alexey experienced a change in worldview. He met believers and began reading spiritual literature. It was during his years of study that Alexey became acquainted with the basics of the Orthodox faith. The natural result of my acquaintance with Orthodoxy was the adoption of baptism in 1980. In 1990, Alexey was ordained to the rank of deacon in the church in Klin, Moscow region. His church career continued successfully with the rank of rector of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Kashira.
After three years of service in the temple of Kashira near Moscow, Alexey was transferred to the capital. In Moscow, he continues to serve in the Church of St. Vladimir and at the same time is the director of an Orthodox gymnasium. From 1994 to the present, he has held the position of rector at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Khokhlovka. Despite his active ministry, Alexey Uminsky continues to work in the field of Orthodox pedagogy, being the confessor of the Orthodox gymnasium, which he himself once headed.
education
In 1982 he graduated from the Faculty of Romance-Germanic languages of the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute. Krupskaya (MOPI). For 8 years he worked as a French teacher in a secondary school.
In 1993-2002 - director of the St. Vladimir Educational Center (the founder of the center is the Moscow Charitable Brotherhood of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir). Then - the confessor of this gymnasium and teacher of the Law of God. Teaches “Introduction to Asceticism” at catechist courses in the name of the Church. Thaddeus, Archbishop of Tver.
In 2004 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary.
He spoke at the Public Orthodox Lecture in 2009-2010. The lecture hall is a project of the Center for the Spiritual Development of Children and Youth.
Family of Alexey Uminsky
In his personal life, Father Alexey is a model of Christian virtue. He lives with his wife and youngest son in an ordinary nine-story house. The priest's wife works as a doctor. The eldest son lives separately, and the youngest, studying at the history department of the university, continues to live with his parents. In total, Alexei's father had three sons. One of the children, Demian, a very talented boy who showed great promise in terms of continuing his father’s ministry, died tragically.
The spiritual path of a priest
Let us tell you in more detail about the path taken by Archpriest Alexei Uminsky.
The sermon he heard by Father John Krestyankin in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery had a huge influence on the eighteen-year-old young man. It was his words that became the starting point on the long path to knowledge of the Orthodox faith. The words of John Krestyankin truly became a revelation for Alexei and revealed to him the purpose of his future life. It was from this moment that the young man realized that his destiny was to become a priest.
Gaining experience
On the path to serving God, Alexey had to overcome a number of obstacles. He received spiritual education. It was more difficult to gain the necessary experience. In this he was helped by the study of the works of the church fathers and a great desire to become a priest of the Orthodox Church. Alexey was surprised when, having come to his confessor and expressing his desire to become a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, he heard that he had been waiting for this decision for a long time.
The first city where the young priest was sent with his wife and small child was Kashira near Moscow. During this period, there was a difficult crime situation in the city; people were afraid to walk the streets in the evening. The appointment of Father Alexei was perceived ambiguously by his wife. His stay in the city lasted for three whole years. It was during this period that Father Alexei developed as a priest. He learned such a quality, indispensable for a person who has dedicated his life to serving God, as love for people. Father Alexei claims that it is with understanding and sympathy that interaction with parishioners begins. The years of work in Kashira became a period of further spiritual and professional formation for Father Alexey.
Lifetime suffering of despisers of confession
When, during the sacrament of repentance, a person is freed from the sins he has listed, their weight is removed from the soul. And if many serious sins have been confessed, a Christian may even feel spiritual ease after the prayer of permission. Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) once said: “The severity of the coma of sin, which we manage to roll out in the soul, will press until over the head of a sincerely repentant sinner during the sacrament of confession (repentance) is read by a priest who, by grace, priesthood power to absolve sins, absolution prayer.”
In addition, thanks to the sacrament of repentance, people get rid of passions. If a person constantly confesses the same sin (even a minor and mental one - for example, condemnation), to which some passion leads him, the power of this passion will weaken with each confession. Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin) writes about this property of the sacrament of repentance: “Sin that has passed into nature is like a tree, where one person is unlikely to be able to cope with it. What is needed here is the prayers of the Church, spiritual guidance, the subordination of one’s whole life to strict rules and frequent confession.”
And if a Christian, having listened enough to Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, avoids frequent confession, he may lose in the war with the strongest passions. And they will push him to do wild things (for example, a person, out of uncontrollable anger, will organize massacres in his family and at work, as a result of which he himself will suffer from the retaliatory aggression of others). In addition, passions darken the mind, and a person sees everything in the wrong light - the suspicious person sees enemies everywhere, the jealous person sees his wife’s non-existent lovers, the ambitious person sees non-existent conspiracies of non-existent contenders for his place, and the envious person sees even deeply unhappy people as lucky ones. All this not only spoils the mood of someone clouded by one passion or another, but also affects his behavior, bringing a lot of troubles to his head.
In addition, unconfessed sins, even immortal ones, attract demons to people. When his spiritual daughter came to the Monk Nektarios of Optina, he told her: “You need to confess, there is a cloud of demons over you!”
And here is how the Venerable Martyr Kronid (Lyubimov) got rid of unclean spirits that inspired him with blasphemous thoughts. These thoughts made him feel terrible. After some time, the Venerable Martyr Kronid, in his words, “confided his spiritual thoughts” to his confessor. He led him to the cross and the Gospel and read the prayer of permission, which is read during the sacrament of confession. And this is how the Venerable Martyr Kronid describes what happened after the sacrament of repentance: “After this, my soul became so light that I did not leave my confessor, but flew on the wings of joy. All terrible thoughts disappeared."
And along with mortal sins, demons can enter a person, and then he will become possessed. It will be possible to drive out unclean spirits from a person only after he repents of his mortal sins in confession.
Accordingly, people who believed Father Alexy are doomed to lifelong coexistence with demonic mentors acting on the soul with the help of mental suggestions, as well as to mental anguish and a miserable life as slaves of passions.
Sermon
Very often, Alexey Uminsky appears in public as a public preacher.
His sermons touch on various topical issues of modern life. He appears before the parishioners as a loving and at the same time strict priest. Priest Alexey Uminsky is not afraid to answer the most difficult questions from parishioners, including about the situation in Ukraine. He believes that Russians and Ukrainians are children of the same church, and therefore it is impossible to take a unified position regarding the support of only one of the parties. Orthodox Christians in Russia and Ukraine should pray and ask God for the coming of peace in the long-suffering lands of Eastern Ukraine. The Orthodox Church, according to Father Alexei, can become a factor uniting the peoples of the two countries. Alexey Uminsky, as a person who, in addition to the spiritual, also has a good secular humanities education, received while studying at the history department of the university, freely discusses current events in the political life of the country and in the church. He does this without the ideological narrow-mindedness inherent in many Church hierarchs. Taking a special position in relation to the events taking place in the country, and without hiding this, Father Alexey does not for a second question the authority and dominant position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the world of Orthodoxy.
views
The thought of O. A. Uminsky revolves around the ideologies generated by Fr. A. Schmemann and Met. Anthony of Sourozh. So, in the spirit of Met. Antonia O. A. Uminsky teaches about meeting the Man Christ, and not with Christ as God. Such a meeting is declared to be the essence of Christianity and what distinguishes it from other religions. Moreover, Fr. A. Uminsky accuses those who profess faith in Christ as God of ecumenism: “We see a completely different God - invisible, incomprehensible, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal. And it is impossible to love someone who is incomprehensible... if these principles are taken as a basis, sooner or later it will turn out that in general there is no fundamental difference between Islam, Christianity, Judaism and many other religious systems.”
A supporter of mystical collectivism, which was expressed in his liturgical reforms at the parish. He teaches: “Man was created as a communal being. The family is an expression of man’s conciliarity, his inner anthropologically embedded churchliness. In family life it is possible to realize the God-given fulfillment of the Church as such. And this is very important, this is a serious spiritual ascetic path of the feat of building oneself in the image and likeness of God.”
Aggressive proponent of secularization: “I am often worried about the fearful, hostile attitude of children towards the world, towards everything that surrounds us. The world in which we live seems to us fallen, sinful, possessed by demonic malice, and it really is like that. But gradually an opinion is emerging that if the world is coming to an end, then we need to be hostile and afraid of it.”
According to the fantastic theory of Fr. A. Uminsky, only the Old Testament Church, enslaved to the weak and poor material principles, was hostile to the world. And the Christian Church of the New Testament, the Kingdom is not of this world, according to Fr. A. Uminsky, “it is not hostile to the world. This is what distinguishes the New Testament Church from the Old Testament. The world is at war with God and the Church, and our task is to respond to it not with hostility in the spirit of the Old Testament (“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”), but with peace and prayer for it.”
O. A. Uminsky develops modernist ideas about experimental knowledge of God, which he combines with amoralism, adogmatism and irrationalism in general: “To know God in Christianity does not mean reading some books about God, learning some dogmas; this means communion with Him. This is the same as how a person recognizes a person, uniting with him in love, in family life, in friendship, when a person opens up to another person, when these people become close to each other, family, united.”
He opposes the dogma about the Church: “According to the catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow, the Church is a society of believers united by a single faith and common rituals. This can be said about any religious association, about Muslims, Jews, about anyone.”
O. A. Uminsky systematically opposes norms and commandments: “Our religious life, our Orthodoxy, unfortunately, is often built on the basis of what is “possible” and what is “not allowed,” but this has nothing to do with life in God , although it often becomes the dominant feature of a Christian’s life. Our children develop this idea of Christianity - when almost nothing is allowed. This scheme comes instead of spiritual life, instead of love, instead of a living relationship between man and God.”
O. A. Uminsky even provides a “pedagogical” justification for this: “Our system of prohibitions, although very clear, is not the fundamental principle of education. It is a kind of safety net. For example, we don’t have such a principle of “not watching TV”... Children still break prohibitions anyway. They have their own system of aesthetic values; they have not yet matured to our system. Teachers should at least know what our children are doing and what they like.”
At the same time, Fr. A. Uminsky disclaims responsibility for the results of his liberal sermon: “I encourage all our parishioners to receive communion at every liturgy, but no one is required to receive communion at every liturgy.”
O. A. Uminsky boldly introduces liberal ideas of equality and brotherhood into the Church: “In the world of the Church, everyone is a priest. The first sacred degree to which a person is initiated during baptism and confirmation is that of a layman, and every Orthodox Christian belongs to it.”
On June 3, 2011, he took part in the presentation of the book by Yu.S. Belanovsky and A.V. Bozhenova “Two into one flesh: love, sex and religion.” The book was advertised as “the first candid book about the intimate lives of believers,” as its raunchy cover certainly matches. The book was not accepted by the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate because they considered that it “might confuse some pious readers.”
O. A. Uminsky has long and boldly opposed the Orthodox teaching on marriage. “Here I recently read (Saint) Fr. Alexey Mechev. He wrote: “The purpose of the Christian family is procreation.” But this is obviously wrong. Now it has become a cliche that is not discussed.” Later Fr. A. Uminsky developed the same idea: “After all, this is a completely poor understanding of a phrase taken out of the context of Holy Scripture. It simply cannot be interpreted and read in the sense that a woman needs to be exclusively a reproductive machine and that is supposedly her main merit before God. Otherwise, for us, the ideal of a Christian family should be a Muslim family or people of the Mumba-Yumba tribe. They are the ones who live by the principle: the more children there are, the more likely it is that at least some of them will not die, will remain alive and, as a result, the family will continue.”
Mohammedan organizations protested against the comparison of the Mohammedan family with the family of the Mumbo-jumba tribe ("Mumbo-jumbo tribe" is a contemptuous name for African tribes. See Mumbo jumbo).
O. A. Uminsky immediately made a public apology in a letter to the Mohammedan website IslamNews: “I regret that my phrase unwittingly caused some misunderstanding, and I am ready to apologize if it could offend someone. Of course, I in no way wanted to offend anyone... I really like the large number of children of Muslims. And in this sense, I think that Muslim families with many children sometimes give Christian families an example to follow.” According to him, he did not intend to compare “Muslim families with the families of some traditional tribe.” It is remarkable in its way that Fr. A. Uminsky did not apologize to the Orthodox Church, which he accused of Mohammedan or savage teaching on marriage.
According to the new teaching of Fr. A. Uminsky about marriage, “not many can accommodate the call: “reproduce and reproduce children,” expressed in the Divine command “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). “Families are not rubber, people are not endless. Everyone has their own resource, everyone can do exactly what they can... Everyone can do it according to their strength. This issue cannot be regulated either by the clergy leadership or by any council decisions.”
This does not interfere with Fr. A. Uminsky to give instructions to the Church. Thus, he teaches, contrary to the teaching of the Church: “I am convinced that intimate relationships are a matter of personal internal freedom of each family, which is free in how to build their life.”
O. A. Uminsky sees the solution to the “problem” of having many children in contraception, and believes that the Church should not interfere in this issue in any way, but accept the “choice” of the spouses:
To the question: “If a couple is forced to plan the number of children, does the Church condemn this or not?” - he answers: “This question cannot be resolved so unambiguously - yes or no, condemns - does not condemn. The Church condemns sin. The Church does not condemn a person. The Church calls man to salvation; the Church loves man above all. She sympathizes with him and has compassion. But today many families plan the number of children based on purely practical, selfish considerations... In this case, such family planning, such a reluctance to have many children, is probably wrong. I won't say it's a sin. This could be a big mistake, which in the end will not bring joy to either the parents or this creature itself, which will become an adult, and will not help him become a person to the end.”
O. A. Uminsky argues that contraception is acceptable “when parents are simply not able to truly support the family due to the fact that there is nowhere to live, nothing to eat, no work. And then, probably, it is justified for some time when parents postpone the birth of their child to another date.”
He contrasts wedding and Communion: “The nature of marriage is the same always and everywhere, whether married or not... a Christian marriage receives the power of grace not so much from the fact that it is married by a priest in the church, but from the fact that people live together according to the Gospel and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ."
O. A. Uminsky does not make a distinction between Divine love and the love of fallen nature: “The priest must make every effort to ensure that people who are looking for each other first of all set as their goal to love truly, to preserve this love, to increase this love and ultimately making it that royal love that leads people to salvation.”
He systematically relates words about God’s love to human relationships: “Love, as a property of God, is eternal. When I talk about love in marriage, I always remember the words of Holy Scripture from the book “Song of Songs” by Solomon, which says: “Love is as strong as death.” The New Testament, the Gospel tells us even more: “Love is stronger than death.”
Edition “Fundamentals of Spiritual Life”
In the book “Fundamentals of Spiritual Life,” he, in particular, talks about the Divine Liturgy, explaining its meaning. The author explains to readers the most important concepts of the Christian Orthodox faith. Readers have the opportunity to learn about what prayer is, why it is needed, and what a person’s struggle with his passions means in Orthodoxy. In addition to books explaining certain key concepts of Orthodoxy, Father Alexey publishes articles on issues of Orthodox pedagogy. He is on the editorial boards of a number of Orthodox magazines and websites. His literary activity is aimed mainly at telling readers about the world of Orthodoxy.
Father Alexey's parting words to parents
For parents who want to introduce their children to the traditions of Orthodoxy, the book “A Child in the Family and Church. How not to harm a child’s faith.” In it, Father Alexey Uminsky touches on how to introduce a child to prayer, tell him about the Orthodox sacraments, and how to avoid mistakes in upbringing. In his book, written on the basis of his experience as a director and confessor of an Orthodox gymnasium, he writes about the place of a child in an Orthodox parish, about spirituality in the lives of children. This book is rightfully an outstanding work in the field of Orthodox pedagogy and can claim to become a reference book for many parents who want to raise their children according to Orthodox traditions. Thus, Father Alexey is not only an outstanding publicist, but also a wonderful teacher.
Alexey Uminsky, whose books inspire people to go to God, is the author of another wonderful work - “What I Want from the Church.” In this book, he tries to answer such vital questions for every person seeking God: “Why do I need the Church if I can believe in God without it?” The book is recommended for reading by people who have not yet felt the need in their hearts to come to church. He claims that the Church is the place that alone provides a person with the opportunity to unite with God. Father Alexey writes in clear language about the peculiarities of Orthodox worship, reveals to readers the meaning of rituals, and talks about unexpected moments that a person may encounter when coming to an Orthodox church. A special place in the book is devoted to polemics with people who are critical of the Orthodox Church, but nevertheless consider themselves Orthodox. The book will answer many questions for people who want to get to know the world of Orthodoxy better.
The book written by Alexey Uminsky, “The Gospel of Mark,” deserves special attention.
The peculiarity of Father Alexei’s writing talent lies in his exceptional ability to speak in simple language about quite complex things. Therefore, his works are easy to read. They are understandable to readers with different levels of education, social status and life experience. Its co-author is the famous journalist Eteri Chalandzia, together with whom the issues of reducing the external attractiveness of the Church, especially among young people, are explored, and myths associated with Orthodoxy are dispelled.
What awaits the people who believed Father Alexy after the death?
No matter how a person repents, if he does not tell about any sin in confession, and if the priest does not forgive him, then after death the person’s soul will encounter this sin. And if the sin is great, it will prevent the soul from entering the Kingdom of Heaven and will bring it down to hell.
From the tale of the ordeal of Blessed Theodora, Orthodox Christians know that during her posthumous ordeal, Theodora heard from the angels: “There is no other way for souls ascending to heaven, everyone follows this road, but not everyone is as tortured as you and sinners like you.” who make an incomplete confession of their sins, hiding their shameful deeds from their confessor out of false shame. Whoever sincerely tells in confession all his evil deeds and regrets what he has done, his sins are invisibly covered by God’s mercy. And when every repentant soul comes here, the aerial torturers, opening their books, do not find anything written in them, and such a soul, rejoicing, ascends to the throne of God.”
Projects with the participation of Alexey Uminsky
In addition to pastoral ministry and literary activities, Father Alexey takes part in various television projects. At first, he acted as a presenter in a number of television programs. Currently, Father Alexey is the host of the Orthodox Encyclopedia program. Various public figures, clergy, and publicists take part in it, discussing various issues related to Orthodoxy and Christianity in general. The personal, very rich life experience of Father Alexei, who went through a winding path from a Komsomol leader to an Orthodox priest, and interesting interlocutors make the television program attractive to the widest segments of viewers. In each program, the host and the guests he invites discuss one topical problem of modern Orthodoxy. The value of the television program, hosted by Father Alexey, is the spirit of freedom present in it. Guests have the opportunity to freely express and argue their opinions on many of the most important issues in the life of the modern Orthodox Church in Russia and the neighboring countries.
Thus, Father Alexey Uminsky, without any exaggeration, can be called the most talented representative of the modern Russian clergy. The versatile facets of Father Alexei’s talent place him on a par with outstanding Russian Orthodox figures.
pathological speech
stamps
responsibility
- a Christian who perceives the Church as a place where God serves man takes full responsibility for his life, and this is impossible without the restoration of Christian freedom[3].
- A person who is confident that he is doing everything right, or who has completely entrusted his life to certain leaders, in general is no longer responsible for anything, because others are responsible for him: for example, in the Church he joined, in the party, in which he entered, after all. In our country, people have been taught for a century that they are not responsible for anything, the party and the government think for them. Accordingly, we began to understand obedience: obedience is when I don’t think about anything, but simply follow some directives. In this sense, responsibility has been removed from me, as well as freedom, because in this case it becomes unnecessary[4].
- The Pharisees perceived the commandment as an unconditional directive. Many people today prefer to follow only instructions, because in this case you don’t have to think about anything, you don’t have to care about anything, you don’t have to empathize. You do what is prescribed and are not responsible for anything else. Responsibility is not the most pleasant feeling for a person[5]:120-121.
swear words
speculation
- as speculative
love[6].
slogans
Conquer the hateful strife of this world
- During such common deeds of serving each other, and therefore serving Christ, we collide with each other, quarrel, take offense, do not understand each other, but this is exactly what is needed to overcome the hateful discord of this world
, which, in the end, , must disappear in us. We must defeat it here, exhaust it, because here we are close and dear to each other[7].
Liturgy is a common cause[8]
biblical allusions
- The Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath.
- Freedom is too great a gift; it cannot be buried[9].
pathological vocabulary
Absolutization, Barricade, God-humanity, Interpenetration, See the main thing, Influence, Influence, Comprehensive, Double standard, Dogmatism, Spiritual vacuum, Eucharistic, Parishioners, Banner, Isolated, Collective consciousness, Collective experience, Personality, Loser, The most powerful, Not a fact, Voice, The surrounding world, Implementation, On behalf of the Church, Responsibility, Responsible, Alienation, Experience, Petrovsky, Platform, According to many, Prescription, Pseudo-Christian, Really, Reduction, Role-playing, Role-playing, By itself, Independence, Over-asceticism, Secular, Secularization, Simulacrum, Service, Meaning, Conciliar, Scheme, Schematic, Satisfied, Speculative
