Photo Chronicle of the 2017 Transfiguration Meetings Festival “Time for a New Sobornost”

08 September 2017

This Orthodox conference-forum, which took place in Moscow on the 19th and 20th of August, was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the opening of the local church Council of 1917-1918

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The Festival brought together more than 2000 people who, over the course of these two days, considered how it is possible to continue on with a tradition that has been broken – not so much in form as in spirit and meaning, as well as what new paths to sobornost are open to us today. The festival’s organizer, the Transfiguration Fellowship of Minor Orthodox Brotherhoods, seeks to create the space for open conversation about the most important issues facing the church and society today.

This was the 3rd annual Transfiguration Meetings Festival. This year, lay people, priests, historians, journalists, writers, and other artists who are well-known to the public participated in the forum, as well as representatives of Christian movements from Russia, Italy, France, Germany the US, the Czech Republic and Latvia.

Dmitry Gasak, Chairman of the Transfiguration Brotherhood; Yulia Balakshina, Academy Secretary of SFI

Dmitry Gasak, Chairman of the Transfiguration Brotherhood; Fr Georgy Kochetkov, Spiritual Father of the Transfiguration Brotherhood and Rector of SFI; Gleb Zapalsky, Deputy Head of the Church History Department and Moscow State University; Fr Ilya Solovyov, Historian and Director of the Society of Amateur Church Historians; Elena Belyakova, Researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences Center for the History of the Church and Religion; Yulia Balakshina, Academy Secretary of SFI

Dmitry Gasak, Chairman of the Transfiguration Brotherhood; Fr Alexander Lavrin; Fr Georgy Kochetkov, Spiritual Father of the Transfiguration Brotherhood and Rector of SFI; Fr Alexey Popov; Abbot Serapion (Mitko), First Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department; Yulia Balakshina, Academy Secretary of SFI

On the Right – Pierangelo Torricelli, Chairman of the Associations of Italian Christian Workers

In the Center – Annie Biono, Chairman of the Brotherhood of Charles de Foucault (France)

Abbot Serapion (Mitko), First Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Mission Department; Fr Georgy Kochetkov, Spiritual Father of the Transfiguration Brotherhood

As is traditional during the festival, on the 20th of August many of the participants of the Transfiguration Meetings went to serve liturgy together at the Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The work of the festival took place across 13 pavilions dedicated to various aspects of the interrelation between church and society. Pavilion themes included: the history of the 20th c. and historical memory, the problem of fellowship in the church, bringing adults, children and youth into the church, liturgical services, participation of laity in the life of the church, witnessing to Christ, interaction between church and culture, the creation of Christian unity, brotherhoods within the church, and the “Calling our Nation to Repentance” Initiative, which is taking place this year, the 100th year since the Revolution of 1917.

Yulia Balakshina, Academy Secretary of SFI

On the screen – Ksenia and Nikita Krivoshein

Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairman of the NGO, Civil Assistance Committee

Alexander Goryanin, Writer, Historian; Oleg Scherbakov, Leader of the Russian and Moscow chapters of the Dvorjanskoye Sobranije (Assembly of Nobility); Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Artist and Local Historian

Alexandra Ershova, Drama Teacher, Consultant to Moscow schools

Alexey Naumov, President of the Transfiguration Fund for Culture; Yulia Balakshina, Academic Secretary of SFI

Elena Rydalevskaya, Executive Director of the Diakonia Educational Fund

Andrew Smirnov, national decorated Artist of Russia, and Film Director; Daria Violina, Film Director and Screen Writer

Fr Georgy Kochetkov; Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairman of the NGO, Civil Assistance Committee; Dmitry Aleshkovsky, Creator and Director of the Takiye Dela Information Portal; Grigory Gutner, Head of the Philosophy, Humanities and Natural Sciences Disciplines at SFI

Galina Muravnik, Geneticist, Senior Lecturer at SFI

Dmitry Gasak, Chairman of the Transfiguration Brotherhood

Mikhail Melnichenko, Author of the Prozhito (What We Have Lived Through) Project, dedicated to the collection of personal records from the GULAG; Andrey Vasenev, Editor-in-Chief of the Stol Media Project

Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Artist and Local Historian

Oleg Shevtsov, one of the Founders of Beloye Delo, an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage and memory of “white” (non-Bolshevik) Russia; Olga Balashova, Chairman of the Starostj v Radostj Fund; Dmitry Ivanin, Coordinator for the Danilovtsy volunteer movement that helps the homeless

Zoya Dashevskaya, Dean of the Theology Department at SFI; Deacon Igor Beskorovayny

Fr Georgy Mitrofanov, Head of the Church History Department at the Orthodox seminary in St. Petersburg; Alexandra Kolymagina, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Kifa

Alexander Kott, Film Director and Screen Writer

Fr Nikolay Sokolov, Member of the Patriarchal Committee for Culture and Dean of the Mission Department of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanitarian University, in Moscow

Dmitry Gasak, Chairman of the Transfiguration Brotherhood; Svetlana Chukavina, Chairman of the Minor Orthodox Brotherhood of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Ekaterina Stepanova, Historian and Teacher at the SFI Theological College; Fr Maxim Kokarev, Head of the Practical Church Department at the seminary in Samara

Pierangelo Torricello, Chairman of the Associations of Italian Christian Labors; Alessandro Salakone, Head of the Representation from the Society of St. Egidio in Russia

Santiago Mata, Author of a book entitled “The Catholic Holocaust” and other books on the history of the Spanish Church

Oleg Glagolev, Chairman of the Minor Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Elizabeth and journalist with the Stol Media Project

Elena Kashtanova, Leading specialist at the Bureau of Historical Research; Dmitry Kashtanov, Director of BII; Vera Zhuravleva, Director of the Society of Friends of the Scripture

Irina Eliseeva, Employee of the Theological College at SFR; Mother Olga Yurevich

Fr Alexander Lavrin; David Gzgzyan, Member of the Interparish Commission of the ROC and Head of the Department of Theology and Liturgics at SFI; Alexander Kopirovsky, Professor at SFI; Vsevolod Volkov, Historian and Local History Expert; Fr Pavel Bibin

Konstantine Obozny, Head of the Department of Church History at SFI

Sergei Bychkov, Publicist and Church Historian

Oleg Ermolayev, Chairman of the Spassky Minor Orthodox Brotherhood; Dmitry Strotsev, Poet, Publisher of materials about Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh; Jean-Francois Tiri, Head of the Pokrovskiye Vorota Cultural Center

Alexey Levinson, Head of the Department of Socio-cultural Research at the Levada-Center

To the left – Anna Shmaina-Velikanova, Biblical Scholar Senior Lecturer at SFI and at the Center for the Study of Religion at the Russian State Humanitarian University

Nailja Agliullina, Pastor at the “Church of the Cornerstone”

Natalia Adamenko, Researcher at the research and methodology Center for Mission and Catechesis at SFI; Vladimir Yakuntsev, Chairman of the Minor Orthodox Brotherhood of St Sergius; Vycheslav Polischuk, Head of the Blagovest Spiritual Education Center at the Novospassky-Staropigialny Mens Monastery; Vladimor Prostov and Tatiana Makienko, parish members at the Church of the All Merciful Savior at the former Great Sorrows (b. Skorbyschensky) Monastery, in Moscow

Kirill Mozgov, Chairman of the Minor Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Seraphim

These materials were prepared by Alexandra Strotseva and Daria Makeeva

Photographers: Alexander Volkov, Alyona Kaplina, Diana Rybakova, Boris Levitsky, Evgeny Gurko, Maria Kaykova, Olga Maksimova, Andrey Podorov, Andrey Zaychenko

Photo Chronicle of the 2017 Transfiguration Meetings Festival “Time for a New Sobornost”

Is “sobornost” possible in today’s church?