Russian singer Elena Vaenga, made up and dressed like a monk, sang the song 'Golden Domes' in one of the television shows. The Church believes that this cannot be called anything other than blasphemy.
'The image of a monk or a priest cannot be tried on to any person. Because it breaks the permissible boundaries and is blasphemy. Moreover, the song from the prison lyrics does not fit this image in any way. No one from the priesthood would sing such a song,' said the winner of the 'Voice' show. Hieromonk Photius.
Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Church Relations with Society and the Media, stressed that the Church does not approve of attempts to speculate on such images. The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said that usually women with beards were shown at fairs, and now on television. In addition, he called the attempt to use the image of a priest as a bargaining chip in his work 'set on edge'.
