The Russian Orthodox Church banned the scandalous Archpriest Vladimir Golovin from the city of Bolgar from serving. Now he is forbidden to read sermons, hold meetings with pilgrims and perform heretical rituals. In this whole story, one thing is surprising: why did Golovin’s activities remain unnoticed by the clergy for so long? The pseudo-elder acted for many years on behalf of the Orthodox Church and managed to attract many supporters to his person. About what the archpriest from Bolgar is known for and what he preaches is in the News.ru material.
Fecal theme
Archpriest Golovin likes to devote the main place in his sermons to fecal topics and trips to the toilet. He is very concerned about these aspects of human existence. He begins to talk about these topics with particular pleasure when he manages to gather young people around him.
The “spiritual teacher” allows himself, in front of children, to savor the toilet details from the earthly life of the Savior, call monks “freaks,” discuss women’s underwear, and talk about the details of his own sex life. In addition, the priest openly encourages parishioners to watch porn films.
Among Golovin’s followers are actor Anton Makarsky and his wife Victoria. The priest invented the so-called conciliar prayer by agreement. It is carried out for a certain fee, and for additional investments they promise to “strengthen prayer” in famous churches and monasteries. And if there is no money, then, as they say, there is no love. Nobody will pray.
Priest Vladimir Golovin, Bolgar - sect - commercial cult.
Share with friends on social networks.In February 2021, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin was defrocked in Tatarstan for advising parishioners to watch pornographic films. He was found guilty of opposing himself to the Church and causing confusion among believers. On his YouTube channel, the former clergyman advised women to watch obscene films, and also talked about his singing the liturgical hymn during intimacy with his wife, the Chistopol diocesan administration said in a statement.
“The time will come when they will not listen to sound doctrine,
but according to their own lusts they will choose for themselves teachers, having pleasure in their ears:
and they will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to fables.”
(II Tim. 4:3).
More than two months have passed since the notorious priest Vladimir Golovin was banned from sacred ministry. And to an outside observer it may seem that “the case is closed”, “everything has settled down”, “the scandal has faded away”, so, they say, “the minister went too far, but he was put in his place in time.” Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. Despite the fact that Golovin’s ruling bishop, Bishop Parmen, forbade the Bulgarian false elder to engage in preaching activities, Golovin did not even think of stopping. Despite the ban by the clergy, the site “prayer by agreement with the Bolgar” is functioning properly, names are accepted for commemoration during the reading of akathists, money, of course, too. Golovin himself continues to address his followers in video sermons. With the same business enterprise, pilgrimages are made to the “main center of Russian shrines” in Bolgar. Now, after being banned from ministry, the producers of the “miracle preacher” do not hesitate to directly call him an “elder”, and even a “saint”... And, really, why waste time on trifles? Everything is going “according to plan”, Golovin’s commercial-religious project continues to live and is financially healthy, and no decrees of the hierarchy play any role for its initiators!
By the way, about the initiators. The “Minister of Foreign Affairs” or the main PR manager of the Golovin movement, Konstantin Kulishov, actively, quite Jesuitically, advertises the financial enterprise of the “elder” in various regions, in particular, he speaks to veterans of the Great Patriotic War of the Moscow region and the like. Very obsequious remarks from Victoria Makarskaya, a faithful follower of Golovin, continue to appear on the Internet. Golovin never made any intelligible apologies (in essence, the charges brought against him). Moreover, he boldly accused two respected hierarchs of the sin of Sodom, and Metropolitan Feofan of Kazan of collaborating with Islamic terrorists. And everything is like water off a duck’s back... Golovin does not comment on his unfounded vile and shameful statements in any way and of course is not going to apologize for his vile lie. And the project continues to exist successfully, supported by faithful adherents.
And here it is necessary to say something special - if earlier the Golovin movement was a kind of commercial project, now we can safely talk about a commercial cult, in fact, an already formed sect of the Bulgarian preacher, which has a considerable army of ardent and aggressive defenders. As soon as any critical remarks appear in the media or online regarding Golovin’s activities or his religious enterprise, this “army” immediately begins to actively attack, or, more simply put, troll the authors of publications. The situation is similar with the “Golovin forums” on the Internet. Having observed commenting in their groups for a certain amount of time, one can note a certain algorithm. If a person appears, politely speaking or asking something “against the grain”, and not singing hosannas to Golovin, first two or three of them enter into a dialogue with him and first try to crush him with a majority, then they begin to make fun of him, distort his name and give powerful arguments in the style of “ only narrow-minded people can believe Novopashin”, “everyone who criticizes is simply jealous of Father Vladimir” and other kindergarten, and in the end, making a face, block the unwanted one, wait a little (usually until the next morning), then clean up and close the dialogue, leaving only verbal syrup addressed to the “old man”.
A funny, but alas, sad picture appears to all of us when it turns out that the most zealous defenders of Golovin, publicly displaying their “piety,” turn out to be commercial employees of this near-Christian structure. They are only interested in Golovin and no one else. For example, general church topics of publications, theology, Christian philosophy, and even the current and tragic situation with the Orthodox Church in Ukraine are not interesting to them. They are only interested in Golovin, only him. And this is already an unambiguous characteristic of the group as a guru cult. Professor Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin in his book “Sect Studies” writes: “If religion (in its true sense) is characterized by a desire for connection with God, then in a sect everything starts with the leader and ends with him, everything is fixated on him. There is and cannot be any connection with God (as sectarians imagine him) apart from the leader in the sect. This is the role played by the guru in almost every sect.” But Golovin’s confused followers are most likely not familiar with the works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, who warns Christians against man-worship (guruism): “Beware of addiction to mentors. Many were not careful and fell, together with their mentors, into the snare of the devil... Addiction makes a loved one an idol: God turns away with anger from the sacrifices made to this idol... And life is lost in vain, good deeds perish.” The Monk Pimen the Great, and the Monk John Cassian the Roman, and many other saints warn about this.
Recently, an information canard called “Interception of a letter to the Patriarch” has spread in this “community.” It claims that the letter of intercession, which was allegedly signed by 16 thousand admirers of the banned priest and addressed to the “guarantor of truth” of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, was insidiously intercepted by the very “customers of the persecution” of Golovin. And this is already an obvious conspiracy theory in the spirit of the adventure novels of A. Dumas the Father, which is also characteristic of totalitarian cults. This ten-minute video sets in motion a typical manipulative scheme of destructive sects - “we are persecuted for the truth, and around us corrupt enemies and evil forces are viciously oppressing us.” Purely sectarian scheme! It is interesting that in this video (“Interception of a letter to the Patriarch”), Golovin’s activists address Metropolitan Savva, the same metropolitan whom Golovin publicly accuses of a dirty sin.
Summarizing the above and taking into account the mass of critical materials that have been published over the past six months, it becomes obvious that the primitive, deceitful, crafty, unprincipled activities of Golovin and his team indicate that these people are only interested in three things: fame, money and power over the souls of the deceived.
Of course, according to the word of the Lord, there must be temptations and temptations in the world, but the main weapon against delusion and temptation, as Saints John Chrysostom and Anthony the Great say, is prudence! It is dangerous to be mistaken in this regard: old and new church history shows us how entire groups went into schism or heresy, confident that their leader was an infallible “elder”. Alas, this is precisely the scenario that seems to be being played out by the closest associates of the banned Archpriest Golovin.
Archpriest Alexander Novopashin
Community "Spasskaya"
Golovin decided to discover his mystical healing abilities. Pilgrims can take part in his personal rite of “spiritual healing.” To do this, you need to buy a special shirt with holes for 350 rubles, a candle for 50 rubles and pay 300 rubles for a prayer service. Total - 700 rubles.
The priest lays his hands on each adept in a ridiculous shirt and mutters something. Since the hierarchy stubbornly did not notice Golovin’s activities, he decided not to stop there.
Vladimir Golovinvk.com/golovinbolgar
In the suburbs of Bolgar, Father Vladimir built himself a monastery and the Spasskaya community. As Golovin himself emphasizes, those “who want to live truly Orthodox” will live in the monastery and community. To attract as many people as possible, Golovin publishes videos of “sermons” on the Internet.
For a long time, the archpriest was haunted by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. After all, when they were still alive, numerous slaves built majestic tomb pyramids for them. Apparently, this is why the Chapel of the Resurrection of the Lord soon appeared next to the monastery. In the lower part of the chapel, a tomb was built personally for Father Vladimir. There are several photos on the Internet of Golovin, who is showing off next to the future tomb in a leopard-print cassock. Some questions arise for the cassock designers.
The end of a wonderful era
For the first time, the general public learned about the antics of the Bulgarian archpriest at the beginning of 2021. Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, who belongs to the same diocese as Golovin, made a presentation at the Orthodox Christmas educational readings in Moscow. Then he told everyone present about the unconventional theology of Father Vladimir.
Either Golovin could share the proceeds well with his superiors, or for some other reason, but the reaction to the accusations against Golovin did not follow immediately. Only at the end of March was a theological commission appointed to investigate the scandalous activities of the archpriest. Its establishment was preceded by numerous articles and publications by leading sect scholars calling for an immediate deal with the heretic.
Vladimir Golovin (left)vk.com/golovinbolgar
Finally, on August 24, Golovin received a final Chinese warning. The full-time clergy of the Chistopol diocese was ordered to delete all his videos with so-called sermons by September 1. Among other things, the archpriest was ordered to delete several websites and public pages, change information on the website of his parish, and abandon dubious rituals.
There's no turning back
There was no repentance. Golovin’s son, Archpriest Anastasy, who was also the dean, took his father’s side. In February of this year, the church court of the Chistopol and Nizhnekamsk diocese decided to deprive Golovin and his son of church rank. Golovin Sr. was charged with creating “a community that opposed itself to the Church, conducting activities that brought confusion to the ranks of believers, distorting the Church’s teaching on prayer, persistent disobedience to the ruling bishop, slandering the hierarchy and harassing a number of archpastors with words.”
As for Archpriest Anastasy Golovin, his accusation boiled down to the following: leaving his place of service, disinterest in the life of the parish and accepting the “ideological side” of his father, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin. The charges in both cases are very serious.
Here is how Abbot Pimen, the abbot of the Kizichesky Monastery in Kazan, commented on the situation to Realnoe Vremya: “Defrockment is defrocking a priest. In our church this is a last resort. It is not accepted immediately; first, the person is given time to repent and come to his senses. If this does not happen, he is defrocked. Church courts resort to defrocking extremely rarely. And such a decision must always be approved by the Patriarch due to its seriousness. In this case, there are no appeals - they are defrocked forever. Unfortunately, some defrocked “priests” continue to communicate with the flock as shepherds, but we must remember that such communication is devoid of grace.”
The accusation against Anastasy Golovin boiled down to the following: leaving his place of service, disinterest in the life of the parish and accepting the “ideological side” of his father. Photo chistopol-eparhia.ru
Heretics don't give up
In response, Golovin published a video on his YouTube channel on August 31. He accused the patriarchy of intimidation. And supposedly he asked to retire for four years, but everyone liked him so much that they wouldn’t let him go. The archpriest insists that he has followers all over the world. For several hours, the pseudo-elder defended his case. He also caught all the accusers lying.
Golovin even threatened the Russian Orthodox Church with a split if it did not back down. However, the responsibility was again placed on the opponents. He compared all those who disagreed, that is, the clergy, with professional killers and presented himself as a hunted victim. With particular pleasure, the priest tried to present himself as a martyr.
The reaction of the Church was not long in coming. The archpriest has been banned from serving since September 3. True, for a period of only three months. He is still given the opportunity to repent and take the right path. But Golovin prefers to have fun with the adherents in the new monastery and prepare for burial in his own tomb. He is unlikely to give up his ideas and power. God Kuzya did not refuse.
