THE CHANGES OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE AS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODERN SPIRIT

The article deals with the evolution of the social doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church since the second half of the 20th century up till the modern time. The objective is to explore the impact of the social transformations on the Orthodox social views and development of the new religious practices. In the 20th century the relations between the Russian Orthodox Church, society and government evolved through a certain chain of transformations. The author concludes that qualitatively new religious practices have appeared, i.e. out-of-confessional social ministry. This fact is backed with new Church documents and agreements about supporting the risk groups signed with the federal and regional (e.g. Nizhny Novgorod region) government bodies. Social activism is caused by the social needs and it leads to changes in the social doctrine of the contemporary Orthodoxy in accordance with the epoch and poses a question about institutional changes within the Church itself.