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During interviews last week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his ministry as a bishop, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate's department of external relations, suggested that Russia adopt what is known here as the "German model" of church-state relations, under which the churches receive a proportion of taxes collected from Christian taxpayers by the German federal government.

The church leader made the suggestions as the church tries to cope with major difficulties in its funding.

In interviews on March 21 and 22, Metropolitan Kirill said that the government should either return to the church some of the property confiscated after the Bolshevik revolution or pay part of the national income tax to the church, to finance the social service work it provides to Russian citizens.

Several observers have pointed out that the proposal is a timely reminder that the Orthodox Church has no strong financial base in Russian society. It also raises, for some, the need for clearer regulations on the relationship between church and state.

"In no way are we talking about raising taxes," Metropolitan Kirill said in an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio. "We are talking about a situation in which part of [the present level of] income tax would be channeled to those social programs that the taxpayer wants to support. If someone wants to support other religious organizations—Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish or others recognized as such by the state—he can do so. If he doesn't want to do so, this money will go to the state [for the government's social programs]. We would thus create an alternative: There should be state social programs in society, and there should be private and church ones."

The metropolitan's remarks imply that only the Orthodox Church and the main representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths—all regarded under Russian law as national religions—would be able to receive the government money. This would in effect prevent Protestant and Catholic churches in Russia from being eligible.

The Russian Orthodox Church, the metropolitan said, did not have the means to meet the expectations of society. "We are told: 'Why do you not go to prisons as much as is needed, why do you not build orphanages, why do you not work for the rehabilitation of alcoholics and drug addicts'?" Metropolitan Kirill said. "If society expects this of religious organizations, it should give its consent to the funding of these programs. … It is a matter for discussion. I have raised this problem so that society knows about the forms and methods of financing for the social activities of religious organizations [abroad]. … But it is important to choose one form. Otherwise the church will be consigned to the social ghetto, unable to solve the tasks facing it and unable to meet society's expectations."

Metropolitan Kirill said a church tax would give the state the right to audit the church's finances.

Alexander Morozov, an expert on church-state relations and a commentator for the Sobornost Internet magazine, told ENI that the idea of tax was first raised by presidential administration officials last August, after the church's Council of Bishops in effect declared the church bankrupt and sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin asking for the restitution of church property.

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March (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45