Russian Orthodox Church rebukes priest for flaunting designer goods on Instagram

Instagram seems to be facilitating an ecumenism of prosperity preaching, as in the item in the post below, and the following, as reported by Matthew Bodner of the London Daily Telegraph, December 10, 2018 (link in original):

The priest, Father Vyacheslav Baskakov, displayed Louis Vuitton bags and Gucci shoes in his Instagram posts

The Russian Orthodox Church is pursuing disciplinary action against a priest in the city of Tver for a series of immodest Instagram posts in which he flaunts Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags, a church spokesman has said.

The account, belonging to priest Vyacheslav Baskakov, drew social media heat on Friday when users noticed posts featuring his luxury swag. The account has since been deleted, but not before Instagram users took snapshots of high price Louis Vuitton slippers, among other things.

“I hope this will bring this shepherd to account,” said Alexander Volkov, a spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, “and to find the words and actions to bring him to reason, so that these kinds of things will not happen again.”

This isn’t the first time Russian Orthodox Church officials have been caught with high end fashion accessories, though it is perhaps the first time one of these holy men have been so blatant about it.

In 2012, Patriarch Kirill himself was spotted wearing a $30,000 Breguet wrist watch in a photo posted on the church’s website. After a wave of outrage, a photo appeared with the wristwatch photoshopped out.

However, Patriarch Kirill’s hand was resting on a table that reflected an image of the watch -- a detail overlooked in the photoshopped image. The original photo, with watch in clear view, was later put back on the website.

All things considered, this was not Russia’s greatest luxury watch controversy. In 2015, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accidentally flashed a $620,000 Richard Mille RM 52-01 watch, of which only 30 were reportedly made, in a photo taken at his wedding in the resort town of Sochi.

While perhaps marginally more appropriate in the halls of power, Patriarch Kirill’s spokesman laid into Father Baskakov with some harsh words for his Instagram posts, saying that his “immodest and unrestrained way of life” has no place in the church. “The life of a priest cannot be divided between the personal and public and no clergyman can act like a priest in a church from the morning until lunch and then be whoever he wants from lunch until evening,” he said.