ABSTRACT
The recent trials of Russian diaspora parishes are often put down to a simple ‘culture clash’ between East and West. This reductive paradigm contains a plethora of cliches, half-truths, truths and assumptions. In the British case, it was used as a catch-all, further dissimulating other pressing issues. One of the Information Sheets published by Bishop Basil during the crisis stated openly, ‘This is not a question of personalities but a clash of cultures’. The meeting of East and West in everyday social praxis was indeed fraught with conflict and misunderstanding. An English parishioner inferred that the problems on the ground in Sourozh were endemic and went right to the top of the Church: It seems to author that with the best will in the world it would be extremely difficult for the Moscow Patriarchate to understand the West and the diverse cultures included in the term ‘Western’ because of lack of sustained contact and a totally different background and experience.
