On the Edge of Post-Secularism: Non-Liturgical Activities of Moscow Orthodox Parishes as a Factor in the Formation of Partner Networks and Post-Secular Hybrids

Abstract

The article aimed to develop a typology of the non-liturgical activities of Moscow Orthodox parishes and to describe the mechanisms through which these activities operate from a post-secular perspective. Its objectives included providing an empirically grounded account of the non-liturgical activities of Moscow Orthodox parishes at different spatial and organizational scales, identifying the hybrid forms generated through these activities, and constructing their typology. The principal methods comprised 17 semi-structured interviews and 10 instances of participant observation conducted in 15 Orthodox parish communities in Moscow in 2023–2024, as well as a content analysis of the social media pages and websites of all active Orthodox churches in Moscow over the same period. The interviews were conducted in parishes differing in their gender and age composition, institutional affiliation, the age of the parish community, and other characteristics. The findings demonstrate that Moscow can legitimately be described as a post-secular city: the interactions between secular and religious actors, as well as interconfessional interactions arising within the framework of non-liturgical activities, correspond to established understandings of the post-secular. The hybrid forms identified in the study were divided into three categories: interparish partnership networks, interconfessional communication, and symbiotic relationships between secular and religious organizations. Practices and discourses traditionally associated with the “religious” and the “secular” actively intersect and intermingle, generating predominantly mutually beneficial relationships and fields of post-secular hybridity. These hybrids, in turn, are characterized by a limited set of recurring relational formats and by the forms of activity emerging from them. Hybrid arrangements are most frequently found in education and social welfare provision. The development of post-secular hybrids within non-liturgical activities is shaped by the social capital of parishioners and clergy, their professional backgrounds, the position of the parish rector, and the intensity of cooperation within the vicariate. It is also influenced by two factors identified in this study: the role of the church’s immediate surroundings, conceptualized as the neighbourhood effect, and the significance of the church’s name, conceptualized as onomastic capital. The non-liturgical life of Orthodox parishes is not confined by administrative, geographical, confessional, or institutional boundaries. The blurring of these boundaries may itself be regarded as a defining property of the post-secular hybrid.

Acknowledgements. The author would like to thank Maria Savoskul for her methodological guidance and support throughout the research, and Leysan Gataullina for her assistance in preparing the manuscript.