Secrets of the church economy: how the Russian Orthodox Church earns and lives on

German sociologist Tobias Köllner led a research project in which scientists analyzed the mutual influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and the political elite of modern Russia. He lived for a year in the Vladimir region, in particular, in order to understand the motives of officials and businessmen who provide financial support to local churches. In an interview with DW, he talks about the relationship between the authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Tobias Köllner: It’s worth noting right away that they not only cooperate with each other. There are conflicts and competition. But there is a clear trend towards partnership. In my research, I termed this “alternating authorities.” The hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, like politicians, are part of the Russian elite. They are very close ideologically: they talk about “national power”, emphasize the uniqueness of Russian culture and contrast Russia with the West. Their relationships are built on two levels: personal and institutional. An example of this is the creation of various commissions of government and church representatives, the privileged position of the Russian Orthodox Church in lawmaking processes and joint appearances in public.

DW: When did the official separation between state and church lose its clear boundaries?

— The system began to develop at the regional and local level during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. It was not love at first sight: many requests from the Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodox activists were not immediately fulfilled. For example, the introduction of the institute of priests in the army or religion classes in secondary schools. But now the Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodoxy are already perceived as part of Russian culture, Russian civilization, and not just as a religion.

— How are relations between entrepreneurs and the Russian Orthodox Church built?

— Businessmen donate to the church not only to atone for sins. They see this as an opportunity to gain concrete benefits. The money given for the construction of the temple will help to establish contacts with important political figures, and if they want to be elected, they will help to gain more votes in the elections. For spiritual practice, entrepreneurs prefer to meet with their priests alone, behind closed doors. They tend to have very close relationships, in which one party acts as a spiritual mentor, the other gives money to the church. At the same time, they are more or less equal. The confessor is usually lenient towards a businessman: too harsh criticism can alienate him and deprive the priest of a source of funding.

Context

Commentary: 7 consequences of Ukrainian autocephaly for Putin, Poroshenko and the Russian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Kirill suffered a historic defeat.
But journalist Konstantin Eggert sees this as a historic chance for the Russian Orthodox Church to become freer and find a new role in society. (10/12/2018) In turn, those who sponsor the Russian Orthodox Church have a clear political advantage. This also affects entrepreneurs: “from above” they are expected to make donations to the Orthodox Church. Otherwise, the business may lose profitable government orders, and problems such as tax audits and sanitary inspections will arise.

— How do priests feel about this form of charity?

— The priests assess this in two ways. They are grateful for the support and emphasize its importance in every possible way. But when it comes to large sums, they understand that the sin they are trying to atone for in this way is probably very large. But the majority treat gifts quite pragmatically and try not to scare away patrons with exhortations. One of the priests quoted the following saying in a conversation with me: “If you don’t live, you won’t sin, if you don’t sin, you won’t repent.” And he said it so easily...

— Is it possible to draw a conclusion from one single Vladimir region about the entire system of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and its elite flock? Or are these isolated phenomena?

— I think that the conclusions of the study can be projected at least onto the entire European part of Russia. The examples I have given are not isolated, but typical.

— Do similar relationships between officials, businessmen and the church exist only in Russia?

- Of course not. They are also developing in other countries of the former USSR. But the Byzantine idea of ​​harmonious and equal relations between the state and the church is an ideal that was not achieved in practice either in Byzantium itself, or in Russia, or in any other Orthodox state.

The conversation took place in August 2021.

See also:

• New life for German churches

RBC investigation: how does the church live?

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

Photo: Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

​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 top officials of the state (about the cost and circumstances of travel to Antarctica).

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.

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“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; how this activity is financed is in the RBC investigation) and those given to the Russian Orthodox Church under the 2010 law “On the transfer of property for religious purposes 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, 2021). 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: Alexander Roshchin/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.

In particular, as RBC wrote, in 2014–2015, over 1.8 billion rubles were allocated to Russian Orthodox Church organizations. for the creation and development of Russian spiritual and educational centers under the federal program “Strengthening the unity of the Russian nation and the ethnocultural development of the peoples of Russia.” Another program supporting the church is “Culture of Russia”: since 2012, almost 10.8 billion rubles have been allocated for the preservation of religious objects within the program. In addition, 0.5 billion rubles. in 2012–2015 it was allocated for the restoration of objects of religious significance, said a representative of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage.

Among the major recipients of contracts on the government procurement website is the church-scientific one (founder - the Patriarchate), which publishes a tome of the same name in 40 volumes, edited by Patriarch Kirill. Since 2012, public schools and universities have spent about 250 million rubles on purchasing this book. And the subsidiary organization of the Orthodox Encyclopedia, the Orthodox Encyclopedia Foundation, received 56 million rubles in 2013. from the Ministry of Culture - for the filming of the films “Sergius of Radonezh” and “Snake Bite”.

In 2015, the Ministry of Education allocated about 112 million rubles from the budget. Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University. The Central Clinical Hospital of St. Alexis under the Moscow Patriarchate received 198 million rubles from the Ministry of Health in 2015, and the new budget provides for another 178 million rubles for the hospital. The budget for 2021 includes about 1 billion rubles. “The Charitable Foundation for the Restoration of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Stauropegial Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church” - the founder of the fund is the monastery itself.

Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov (right) and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' at a meeting of the supervisory board for the publication of the Orthodox Encyclopedia (Photo: RIA Novosti)

In addition, from 2013 to 2015, Orthodox organizations received 256 million rubles. within the framework of presidential grants. The Russian Orthodox Church has no direct relationship with the recipients of the grants, they simply “were created by Orthodox people,” explains Archpriest Chaplin. Although the church does not directly participate in the creation of such organizations, there are no random people there, says Sergei Chapnin, former editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate.

According to the same principle, he says, money is distributed in the only Orthodox grant program, “Orthodox Initiative” (the funds were allocated by Rosatom, two sources familiar with the program told RBC; the corporation’s press service did not answer RBC’s question).

The “Orthodox Initiative” has been held since 2005, the total amount of funding over the years of the competition is almost 568 million rubles. “I sat on the expert commission for a long time. I can say that applications for grants, as a rule, are written sloppily - it is not clear from them what people want and can,” says Chapnin. “Every second person definitely suggests making a website without very well understanding how websites are made.”

Businessmen about help from the Russian Orthodox Church: “You can’t get this joy by earning another million” Photo gallery

Income and income

The church economy is a rigid vertical, working on the principle of strict subordination, explains priest Alexey Uminsky about the structure of another channel for the flow of money to the patriarchy.

At the last Council of Bishops, Patriarch Kirill announced that there are 293 dioceses and over 34.5 thousand churches in the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian churches allocate a certain percentage of the donations received to their dioceses, explains Uminsky. The exceptions are churches under construction and restoration - according to Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), they are temporarily exempt from diocesan contributions (an interview with the bishop can be read here). In all other churches, the collection of contributions is controlled by a superior bishop - he, in turn, reports to the patriarchate, two sources in the Russian Orthodox Church explain to RBC.

The money of the church parish consists of donations for performing services (baptism, wedding, consecration of cars, apartments and other objects) and services (commemoration, reading akathists). The bulk of the money ends up in the parish treasury thanks to the candles needed to perform all rituals, explains Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev. The Russian Orthodox Church has dozens of candle-casting workshops scattered across the country, both from new material and from cinders collected during service. The cost of a candle in production and in a church differs tenfold: “to make a four-gram “hundred” candle, one of the most popular, costs 25 kopecks. In the church they will give you up to 20 rubles for it,” the manufacturer and supplier of church utensils confesses to RBC.

The cost of a candle in production and in a church differs tenfold (Photo: Max Novikov/Forbes/Photoxpress)

The monthly income of Russian churches varies greatly - from 5 thousand to 3 million rubles, Archpriest Chaplin calculates.

An RBC correspondent spoke with priests of almost 30 churches; from their stories, the scheme of financial relations between “lower” parishes and dioceses looks like this: after the service, the rectors open the donation boxes, the collected money is kept by the treasurer. Parish rectors submit reports to the diocese (a copy of such a document dated 2013, submitted to the Moscow diocese, is at the disposal of RBC). The paper indicates the number of services and services performed, as well as the amount of contribution sent by the parish to the diocese - in the report studied by an RBC correspondent it is 20%.

The percentage of deductions, according to the abbots, ranges from 10 to 50%. For example, the parish of the Trinity Church in Khokhly donated 230 thousand rubles in 2014. - with an “income” of about 2 million rubles, said Uminsky.

Money, the priests explained to RBC, is transferred to the dioceses in two ways - in cash (a receipt order is given for each amount) or by bank transfers.

The amount of deductions grows every year, priests of regional churches complained to an RBC correspondent. “Under Patriarch Alexy II, I transferred 10% to the diocese, now - 27%. This is due to the fact that after the arrival of Patriarch Kirill, the number of dioceses was increased threefold and the load on the parishes increased greatly,” the rector of a church near Moscow anonymously complains.

In churches on the periphery, where, according to the definition of one of the heroes of Mitrokhin’s book, four people go to the religious procession - “father, mother, headman and their dog” - even a contribution that is insignificant by capital standards seems unaffordable. “We have a parish of five people, we barely earn 3 thousand rubles a month. One and a half thousand rubles - to the diocese,” says the rector of the parish in the Ivanovo region.

If a priest is unable to pay the fee, the diocese can say: “We understand everything. We're sorry. We can take another priest in your place. No one agrees to such a proposal,” says Dmitry Sverdlov, former rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the Domodedovo district of the Moscow region. In 2011, Sverdlov was an observer at the State Duma elections, a year later he spoke out in support of Pussy Riot, and in 2013 the priest was “banned from ministry.”

“Every diocesan meeting we have begins with an announcement to the parishes: if you don’t collect the required amount, the rector will be changed. Nobody cares whether a priest fulfills his pastoral duties; what’s more important is whether he can raise money, says a cleric of one of the churches in southern Russia. — We collect up to 8 million rubles a year. donations, we pay 30% to the diocese, but each visit of the bishop is accompanied by an additional collection of money in an envelope.”

15% of what is collected by the dioceses is transferred to the Patriarchate, five RBC interlocutors in the Russian Orthodox Church said. It is impossible to calculate the exact amount of funds transferred, but large dioceses, about thirty of them, annually transfer from 10 to 20 million rubles to the patriarchate. each, notes Chapnin.

The financial and economic management of the Patriarchate, headed by Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailovsky, did not answer RBC’s questions.

And in the federal budget “there are closed items”, it’s up to “the church itself to decide how to manage it (its budget - RBC),” the patriarch’s press secretary, priest Alexander Volkov, answered questions for the material with these phrases.

Candle factory

The income of commercial enterprises also significantly fuels the budget of the patriarchate, explains Archpriest Chaplin. The main ones are the Sofrino Art and Production Enterprise and the Danilovskaya Hotel.

KhPP produces icons, church furniture, tombs, bowls, wax candles (609 rubles for a two-kilogram package of 500 candles) and paraffin candles (210 rubles for a two-kilogram package of 500 candles), providing these items, according to several RBC sources in the patriarchate, up to half of Russian churches. In a conversation with RBC, priests admitted that in dioceses they are strongly advised to order Sofrino products for churches. The Sofrino trading house is located at the very beginning of the “golden mile” of Moscow, on Prechistenka - before the holidays and the laity buy icons and gifts there.

Art and production enterprise "Sofrino" (Photo: Max Novikov/Forbes/Photoxpress)

“Sofrino” has been operating in the village of the same name for over 40 years: the land for the construction of the main church plant, at the request of Patriarch Pimen, was allocated in 1972 by the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Alexei Kosygin. Since the late 80s, Evgeniy Parkhaev has become the permanent head of the KhPP - he, according to SPARK, runs the Danilovskaya Hotel, owned by the Patriarchate. In the 2000s, he was a co-owner of the Sofrino private security company and headed the Unified Customer Service of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is now involved in the construction of new churches under the 200 Temples program.

Next to the Sofrino trading house on Prechistenka there is one of the branches of the telecommunications group. Parkhaev also owned 10.7% of the company until at least 2009. Co-founder) - co-chairman of the Union of Orthodox Women Anastasia Ositis, the company is led by her daughter 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 (ZhSK), founded by Malyshev and partners, received several large contracts from the Russian Orthodox Church: in 2006, the HSC won 36 competitions announced by the Ministry of Culture (formerly Roskultura) for the restoration of churches. 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, in 1965 he came to work in the Patriarchate, participated in the restoration of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 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, brick, 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, co-owner of Novokuznetsk Computer.

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. This hotel is a pilgrimage hotel and has a large hall that 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 a construction and installation company, a member of the board of trustees of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the author of the book “The Influence of 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 Vneshprombank, which turned out to be no less problematic, 1.5 billion rubles were stuck. 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 Russian Orthodox Church owns 36.5% of the bank, another 13.2% belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church. 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. 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, 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. - subsidiary - 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 estimated 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 structured simply: 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

Oceanographic Museum

St. Catherine's Monastery in Stralsund, an example of North German Gothic architecture, is one of the oldest on the Baltic Sea coast. It was founded in the 13th century. Today, the exhibition of the Oceanographic Museum is located within its walls on three levels. This is one example of how in Germany the premises of former churches that have closed due to a decrease in the number of parishioners are being used.

House

But the New Apostolic Church in Ofterdingin near Tübingen was turned into a residential building. It belongs to one married couple. In Germany, such a case is not uncommon. The buildings of many former temples are now used for housing, especially since the prices for such real estate are not high. It happens that empty sacred buildings are even put up for auction.

What are the secular expenses of priests

Outside of work, priests can lead a completely ordinary social life. They spend their budget on renting an apartment or mortgage, on home improvements, gasoline, food and recreation. Part of the funds is also set aside for large purchases. Often a large expense item is the maintenance of children, since in such families there can be many of them.

their own housing on their own. Rarely rich temples have service apartments for their workers. This occurs as an exception.

Food can cost about 15–20 thousand rubles. Depends on the region. As a rule, food expenses are small, because some of the food can be taken from the church. People bring them to perform remembrance ceremonies. Cereals, bread, vegetables, sweets, and Cahors are often available.

A lot of money is spent on fuel and car maintenance . This is due to frequent trips to services. They have to take with them special clothing and items for performing rituals. It can cost about 20 thousand rubles per month to maintain a car.

As for clothes . The cassock and cassock wear out quite slowly, so they are bought once every 5–10 years. They cost 15 and 10 thousand rubles respectively. The priest's vestments and other specific accessories are purchased at the expense of the parish.

Many clergy go to the gym . This is not just a health concern, but a vital necessity. Divine services last for many hours, during which you need to stand practically without moving. This requires physical strength and endurance. Over time, the lower back begins to hurt and other health problems appear. Therefore, you need to monitor your physical condition.

According to the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, ministers are also entitled to a full vacation of 28 days. It is important to agree in advance so that the dates do not coincide with another priest who will replace him. You can choose the place and type of vacation at your discretion. Upon reaching retirement age, it is not necessary to resign from your position. It is not prohibited to work into old age. Health or other serious life circumstances may force you to leave the church.

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Library and Museum of Musical Instruments

The well-preserved monastery of St. Magnus, built in the Bavarian Füssen between the 9th and 18th centuries, is an example of various architectural styles, including Italian Baroque. This is one of the main local attractions. Today it houses a library and a museum, where a collection of lutes and violins made by the masters of Füssen is exhibited.

Tax and accounting reporting of religious organizations has its own characteristics

Accounting and tax reporting of religious organizations has its own characteristics. For example, in 2001, the Government of the Russian Federation established a complete list of religious items, the sale of which is not subject to tax. It has five points:

2001

this year the Government of the Russian Federation established a list of religious items that are not taxable

1. Objects of religious worship: icons, icon frames, thrones, altars, conical images, vestments, etc.
2. Interior decoration of temples and architectural elements.
3. Church paraphernalia: crosses, medallions, amulet, memorial signs, etc.
4. Items for worship and rituals.
5. Clothing for religious purposes: robes, felonies, braces, belts, etc.

Restoration of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Klenovo.
2010 It must use all cash receipts to a religious organization for the maintenance of churches. In addition, there is a special procedure for using cash receipts. They must be used exclusively for the main activities of the temples.

In order not to violate the law, a religious organization must use these funds only for the maintenance of churches, temples and other religious objects.

A religious organization must keep complete financial records of income and expenses.

After the tax period ends, the parish must submit it to the appropriate tax office. If this is not done, the tax authorities will regard the cash receipts as unrealized income. They can tax you.

Therefore, an accountant working in a religious organization must have experience in this area, otherwise it will suffer serious material losses.

Museum of Monastic Culture

The history of the Dalheim Monastery near Paderborn (North Rhine-Westphalia) spans five and a half centuries. During this time, he underwent many troubles and transformations, but always influenced the life of the city. In 2007, a unique Museum of Monastic Culture opened here. Among other things, visitors can learn about ancient beer recipes and explore the well-preserved monastery brewery.

The Apostle Paul praised communities that financially support their compatriots

In theology, the issue of material support for the Church is well developed.

Theologians note that the Church is a community of people united by the Orthodox faith, the law of God, the hierarchy and the Sacraments.

The Russian Orthodox Church needs material resources as a human community.

As the Body of Christ, the Church is not subject to any earthly laws and does not need anything material.

At the same time, as a human community, it is forced to submit to the conditions of the earthly order and therefore needs material and financial resources.

Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles (Novgorod icon, 15th century). As the Body of Christ, the Church does not need anything material, but as a human community it needs material and monetary resources

To conduct religious rites and ceremonies, special buildings are needed - churches. You also need church utensils, priestly vestments, candles, etc.

The Church includes the clergy, that is, those representatives of the clergy for whom serving in the temple and managing church affairs is their only professional occupation.

They cannot earn money in any other way other than serving in the Church.

Andrey Rublev. Saint Paul the Apostle, icon circa 1410. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians said that the church community must support its shepherds

That is why the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, instructs the church community to maintain pastors:

“Do you not know that those who officiate are fed from the sanctuary?

that those who serve the altar take a share from the altar?

So the Lord commanded those who preach

The gospel is to live by the gospel."

(1 Cor 9. 13-14)

The 41st Apostolic Canon provides for all bishops and clergy to receive support from their flock.

At the same time, charging for the administration of the sacraments of Communion is recognized as the gravest sin of simony. Simony in a broad sense is the sale of the Sacraments of the Holy Spirit.

The priesthood is also prohibited from charging fees for other sacraments and essential needs.

Art gallery

Rafael Jablonka is one of the most influential gallerists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In its art galleries you can see masterpieces of world fine art. A few years ago, Jablonka opened a new branch, purchasing the Boehm Chapel for this purpose. This is the name of the former Church of St. Ursula, built in the 1950s according to the design of the outstanding German architect Gottfried Böhm in the town of Hürth near Cologne.