One of the Orthodox scholars who signed a statement condemning as “heresy” the political vision of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is a U.S.-born Russian Orthodox nun and scholar of Byzantine liturgy.
Sister Vassa Larin, a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, also is host of the popular podcast and video series, “Coffee with Sister Vassa.”
Living and working in Vienna, Sister Vassa also serves on the liturgical and canon law commissions of the Russian Orthodox Church, and now she is helping support a Ukrainian Catholic mother and her two children who fled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
In an interview with Catholic News Service March 18, she denounced the war as “evil” and Patriarch Kirill’s approach to it as a “horrible, horrible thing.”
For decades, the patriarch has been promoting a teaching called “Russkii Mir” (Russian World), which claims a special status for the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian nation working closely together to govern politically and spiritually not only Russia, but all Russian speakers and the people they believe are closely related to them: Ukrainians and Belarussians.
“It is not a Christian thing,” Sister Vassa said, even if Patriarch Kirill and President Putin try to cloak it in Christian language and present themselves as defenders of traditional Christian values.
“What unites us is not being Russian; that’s not the primary thing in the mystery of the church,” she said. “The church is a mystery of unity, a sacrament of unity, based on the oneness of the Body of Christ. It’s not based on ethnicity.”
While she describes herself as “a big Pope Francis fan,” Sister Vassa said that as an Orthodox Christian, she does have some questions about his plan to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the “Immaculate Heart of Mary” on March 25.