RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION "URZHUM DIOCESE OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE)"

Urzhum and Omutninsk diocese of
the Vyatka Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church

• Diocesan administration: Russia, 613530, Kirov region, Urzhum, st. Sovetskaya, 34
• Tel./fax: (83363) 2-22-09
• Official site:
• Canonical territory: Urzhumsky, Afanasyevsky, Belokholunytsky, Bogorodsky, Verkhnekamsky, Vyatskopolyansky, Zuevsky, Kilmezsky, Lebyazhsky, Malmyzhsky, Nagorsky, Nemsky, Nolinsky, Omutninsky, Sunsky, Uninsky and Falensky districts of the Kirov region.
• Cathedrals: Trinity in Urzhum, Trinity in Omutninsk
• On the map: Yandex.Map, Google map

It existed as a vicariate of the Vyatka department since 1919.
It stopped in the 1930s. On October 4, 2012, it was revived as an independent diocese, having been separated from the Vyatka diocese within Afanasyevsky, Belokholunitsky, Bogorodsky, Verkhnekamsky, Vyatsko-Polyansky, Zuevsky, Kilmezsky, Lebyazhsky, Malmyzhsky, Nagorsky, Nemsky, Nolinsky, Omutninsky, Sunsky, Uninsky, Urzhumsky and Falensky districts in the east of the Kirov region. At the same time it was included in the newly formed Vyatka Metropolis.

Historical names

• Urzhumskaya (vicariate, 1919 - early 1930s)
• Urzhumskaya and Omutninskaya (since October 4, 2012)

Bishops

Vicariate

• Schisp. Victor (Ostrovidov) (December 1919 - 1920)
• Eusebius (Rozhdestvensky) (September 14 - end 1921)
• Ioannikiy (Dyachkov) (mentioned 1921 [1] - ?)
• Abraham (Dernov) (September 16, 1923 - February 22, 1929)
• Georgy (Anisimov) (February 23, 1926 - September 16, 1927) v/u, bishop. Malmyzhsky

Independent diocese

• Daniil (Kuznetsov) (December 23, 2012 - July 25, 2014)
• Mark (Tuzhikov) (July 25 - December 14, 2014) senior, metropolitan. Vyatsky

• Mark (Tuzhikov) (February 26 - April 4, 2019) senior, Metropolitan. Vyatsky

Russian Orthodox Church

Part of the Vyatka Metropolis

Formed by the decision of the Holy Synod of October 4, 2012 (magazine No. 92) by separation from the Vyatka diocese. Included in the Vyatka Metropolis.

The Synod decided to have the title “Urzhum and Omutninsky” for the ruling bishop.

Unites parishes within the administrative boundaries of Afanasyevsky, Belokholunytsky, Bogorodsky, Verkhnekamsky, Vyatsko-Polyansky, Zuevsky, Kilmezsky, Lebyazhsky, Malmyzhsky, Nagorsky, Nemsky, Nolinsky, Omutninsky, Sunsky, Uninsky, Urzhumsky and Falensky districts of the Kirov region.

Diocese today (as of December 2020)

Deaneries and deaneries

• Zuevskoye - Archpriest Stefan Bugrinets
• Kilmezskoye - Priest Vladimir Machekhin
• Nolinskoye - Archpriest John Dikalo
• Northern - priest Dionysius Putilov
• Central - Archpriest Miroslav Ryzhiy
• Yuzhnoye - Priest Anthony Kalugin

Monasteries

• Nativity of the Mother of God Women's 612965, Kirov region, Vyatskie Polyany, st. Lenina, 212A; tel. (83334) 6-12-81, fax (83334) 7-30-60; e-mail abbess - abbess Kirill (Korshunova Tatyana Mikhailovna)

The total number of churches and other places of worship is 149, of which 47 have the status of a legal entity.

Number of clergy and religious

• priests - 53;
• deacons - 6;
• in the monastery - abbess, in the schema - 2, in the mantle - 7, 4 nuns and 2 novices.

Diocesan social institutions

• Diocesan Department of Social Ministry and Charity Urzhum, st. Sovetskaya, 19; tel. (83363) 2-15-82; e-mail manager - Galina Sergeevna Gradoboeva

Youth associations

• club "Victoria" at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Omutninsk Omutninsk, st. Tukmacheva, 1; VKontakte group https://vk.com/club146135307
• Orthodox youth club "Renaissance" Urzhum, st. Sovetskaya, 19; VKontakte group https://vk.com/club50289189
• Diocesan volunteer movement “Source of Good” Urzhum, st. Sovetskaya, 19; VKontakte group https://vk.com/public135850734
• Military-patriotic all-around club Nolinsky district, Arkul village

Diocesan media

• official website of the diocese https://urzhum-eparhiya.ru

Diocesan pages on social networks:

• VKontakte https://vk.com/eparhiyaurzhum
• Telegram https://t.me/eparhiyaurzhum

Educational establishments

• Spiritual and educational center of Omutninsk, Kirov region, Omutninsk, st. Tukmacheva, 1G; tel. (83352) 2-44-90; e-mail; website https://spiritual-educational.rf; VKontakte page https://vk.com/public188840391 head - Svetlana Ivanovna Pechenitsyna-Kuzminykh

parochial schools:

• at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kirov region, Urzhum, st. Sovetskaya, 19; tel. (83363) 2-15-82
• Sunday school “Lestvitsa” at the parish of the Spasskaya Church, Kirov region, Zuevka, st. Lunacharsky, 1; tel. +7953 694-67-06 (rector - Archpriest Stefan Bugrinets)
• in the name of St. Matthew of Yaransky at the Trinity Cathedral, Kirov region, Kilmez town, st. Labor, 27; tel. +7912 733-32-71 (rector - Priest Vladimir Machekhin)
• at the Church of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God of the Nativity of Christ Monastery, Kirov Region, Vyatskie Polyany, st. Lenina, 212A; tel. +7922 ​​938-48-48 (Abbess Kirill (Korshunova))
• at St. Nicholas Cathedral, Kirov region, Vyatskie Polyany, st. Lenina, 27; tel. (83334) 6-02-05

In other parishes of the Urzhum diocese there are Sunday educational groups.

• school children's creativity club in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky Urzhum district, village. Shurma; website https://scshurma.blogspot.co.uk/
• family education club “Rodnichok” at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Urzhum

History of creation

The original Russian territories of the Kirov region have always been full of Orthodox churches and chapels, but separate church administrative units did not previously exist here. Despite the fact that Orthodox Christians lived here from the beginning of the formation of the Russian Empire, their parishes were always subordinate to distant dioceses - Novgorod, Vladimir, etc. Only in December 1657, by decree of Patriarch Nikon, the Vyatka diocese was approved.

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Urzhum

In 1919, Patriarch Tikhon, with the consent of the Holy Synod, established the vicar department in Urzhum. At the same time, the Bishop of Urzhum was appointed - he became Archimandrite Victor (Ostrovidov), who worked as the vicar of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The vicariate existed until 1937 - it was then that the repression of the church and clergy began, so Georgy (Anisimov) became the last vicar in Urzhum.

The growth of the Orthodox population was interrupted first by the revolution, then by the war, but for the longest time the church was oppressed by anti-religious propaganda and atheistic legislation of the USSR. Over the 70 years of atheism, many Orthodox churches and parishes were completely destroyed, dioceses and metropolises ceased their activities.

Only in the 1990s did freedom come and the Russian Orthodox Church began to revive and gradually recover. And in the 2000s. Parishes began to grow and multiply, which led to a revision of the territorial and administrative division of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Belaya Kholunitsa, Urzhum diocese

In the fall of 2012, the Holy Synod, by its decree, created the Vyatka Metropolis and from its composition separated the independent Urzhum diocese. The official date of its foundation is October 4, 2012. Daniil (Kuznetsov) became the ruling bishop.

The main task of the clergy of the diocese was the restoration of many destroyed and abandoned churches in the region, many of which are not only the property of the Orthodox Church, but also architectural monuments of federal and regional significance.

Excerpt characterizing the Urzhum diocese

It was obvious that l'amour, which the Frenchman loved so much, was neither that lower and simple kind of love that Pierre once felt for his wife, nor that romantic love, inflated by himself, that he felt for Natasha (both types of this love Rambal equally despised - one was l'amour des charretiers, the other l'amour des nigauds) [the love of cabbies, the other - the love of fools.]; L'amour, which the Frenchman worshiped, consisted mainly in the unnaturalness of relationships with women and in a combination of ugliness that gave the main charm to the feeling. So the captain told the touching story of his love for one charming thirty-five-year-old marquise and at the same time for a charming innocent seventeen-year-old child, the daughter of a charming marquise. The struggle of generosity between mother and daughter, which ended with the mother, sacrificing herself, offering her daughter as a wife to her lover, even now, although a long-past memory, worried the captain. Then he told one episode in which the husband played the role of the lover, and he (the lover) the role of the husband, and several comic episodes from the souvenirs d'Allemagne, where asile means Unterkunft, where les maris mangent de la choux croute and where les jeunes filles sont trop blondes. [memories of Germany, where husbands eat cabbage soup and where young girls are too blond.] Finally, the last episode in Poland, still fresh in the captain’s memory, which he related with quick gestures and a flushed face, was that he saved the life of a Pole (in general, in the captain’s stories, the episode of saving a life occurred incessantly) and this Pole entrusted him with his charming wife (Parisienne de c?ur [Parisian at heart]), while he himself entered the French service. The captain was happy, the charming Polish woman wanted to run away with him; but, moved by generosity, the captain returned his wife to the husband, saying to him: “Je vous ai sauve la vie et je sauve votre honneur!” [I saved your life and save your honor!] Having repeated these words, the captain rubbed his eyes and shook himself, as if driving away the weakness that had seized him at this touching memory. Listening to the captain's stories, as often happens in the late evening and under the influence of wine, Pierre followed everything that the captain said, understood everything and at the same time followed a number of personal memories that suddenly appeared to his imagination for some reason. When he listened to these stories of love, his own love for Natasha suddenly suddenly came to his mind, and, turning over the pictures of this love in his imagination, he mentally compared them with the stories of Rambal. Following the story of the struggle between duty and love, Pierre saw before him all the smallest details of his last meeting with the object of his love at the Sukharev Tower. Then this meeting had no influence on him; he never even thought about her. But now it seemed to him that this meeting had something very significant and poetic. “Peter Kirilych, come here, I found out,” he now heard these words spoken, saw before him her eyes, her smile, her travel cap, a stray strand of hair... and something touching, touching seemed to him in all this. Having finished his story about the charming Polish woman, the captain turned to Pierre with the question of whether he had experienced a similar feeling of self-sacrifice for love and envy of his lawful husband. Provoked by this question, Pierre raised his head and felt the need to express the thoughts that were occupying him; he began to explain how he understood love for a woman a little differently. He said that in all his life he had loved and loves only one woman and that this woman could never belong to him. - Tiens! [Look!] - said the captain. Then Pierre explained that he had loved this woman from a very young age; but he did not dare to think about her, because she was too young, and he was an illegitimate son without a name. Then, when he received name and wealth, he did not dare to think about her, because he loved her too much, placed her too high above the whole world and therefore, especially above himself. Having reached this point in his story, Pierre turned to the captain with a question: does he understand this?

Activity

From April 2021, John (Rudenko) was appointed ruling bishop of the diocese. All clergy who serve in the canonical territory of the diocese are subordinate to him - these are Urzhum, Afanasyevsky, Zuevsky, Nolinsky, Lebyazhsky and other districts of the Kirov region.

Bishop of Urzhum and Omutninsky John

In general, the entire territory is divided into 6 deaneries:

• Zuevskoe;
• Kilmezskoe;
• Nolinskoe;
• Northern;
• Central;
• Yuzhnoe.

Bishop John also oversees the work of diocesan departments that work with youth, missionaries, organize charitable events, provide spiritual education to those in need, engage in prison ministry and interact with government agencies and figures.

Unfortunately, the diocese does not have its own religious institutions; there was a religious school in Nolin, but it was closed. Now, in order to obtain the necessary knowledge, those who wish must go to the center of the metropolis - Vyatka - and study there. More information about the activities and news of the diocese can be found on its official website.