Off to the Suburbs

Church of the Righteous John the Russian

Church of the Righteous John the Russian

For the next stop of the tour, we’ll travel to a suburb of Moscow known as the Kuntsevo district. Erected in 2004, the Church of the Righteous John the Russian is a relatively small, unassuming wooden church in the western outskirts of Moscow (1). Although the church does not hold any military or architectural significance like the previous churches, it is important because it was part of the city’s 200 Churches Program. After the communist government fell in the late 1900’s, the Russian Orthodox Church began to regain influence in the country – “it became a center of strength for conservatives and nationalists in the post-communist era” (2). Despite its growing influence, the city had one of the lowest church to population ratios in the country because the communist government had demolished nearly 1000 churches during the mid-1900’s.

Construction Under 200 Churches Program

Patriarch Kirill argued that the city needed at least 200 new churches by justifying that “if, in Russia overall, there is one church for every 11,000–13,000 residents, then, in Moscow, (where there are only 650 churches and chapels) every place of worship must accommodate two or three times as many people” (3). Therefore, to accommodate the residents of Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church partnered with the city of Moscow to institute the 200 Churches Program – an initiative to construct 200 new churches over the course of the next 20 years. As part of this program, the Church of the Righteous John the Russian was constructed, representing the increasing influence of religion in present-day Moscow.