The Russian Orthodox Church wants to have a full-time priest in every Russian school

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has proposed lifting the legal restrictions that currently prevent secondary schools from including a full-time clergy position in their staffing plans. 

This was stated in an interview with the TASS propaganda agency by Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, chairman of the ROC’s Educational Committee, who also heads the Church-wide Postgraduate and Doctoral Program.

The clergy representative emphasized that schools should be granted the legal right to establish a full-time priest position in cases where there is a direct request and consent from the students’ parents. In his view, such innovations should be implemented within the framework of current secular education legislation if society demonstrates a genuine need for them.

At the same time, Kozlov acknowledged the existence of serious legal obstacles to the implementation of this idea. Even though the current Russian government has officially adopted a course of strengthening so-called “traditional values,” the direct integration of religious figures into the school staff is complex from a legal standpoint. Among other things, the presence of Orthodox priests in state educational institutions would automatically raise the question of whether clergy from other official denominations in the Russian Federation should also be included on the staff.

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience has adopted a decision recognizing the “Holy Protection Holosiivskyi Monastery” of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church—a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited on the territory of Ukraine. 

The Security Service of Ukraine has already launched a detailed investigation into illegal activities on the monastery’s grounds following the publication of evidence by journalists. Investigators are examining educational materials and identifying the teachers who implemented the educational standards of the aggressor country. Unlike Ukraine’s official educational institutions, which operate according to state standards, such underground structures are often used by the Russian Federation to exert soft influence and shape a generation loyal to the occupiers within the country.

Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy Tetiana Berezhna stated the need to await the official results of the Security Service of Ukraine’s investigation into the clandestine educational institution exposed by journalists on the grounds of the UOC-MP monastery in the Holosiivskyi district.