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Published by Stetson
University Russia Religion News, June 24,
2004
Metropolitan Kirill
on current matters
METROPOLITAN OF SMOLENSK
AND KALININGRAD KIRILL ANSWERS QUESTIONS FROM "AiF"
NEWSPAPER
”AiF Dolgozhitel," 17 June 2004
Spiritual Unity
--Your excellency. Tell us please what the
relations between the Moscow patriarchate and the
Ukrainian Orthodox church are like?
--The Ukrainian Orthodox church, which possesses
the rights of independence and autonomy in
administration, is in spiritual and canonical
unity with the Moscow patriarchate. We have a
common history and common sacred places. For the
Russian Orthodox church the waters of the Dnepr
were the first baptismal font. For our church
there is great significance to the Kiev caves
lavra whose founders and residents laid the
foundations for the Russian monastic tradition and
produced a multitude of heroes of piety. Today one
can observe how numerous pilgrims from Russia go
every day to the Kiev caves lavra and other sacred
places in Ukraine. In their turn, many believers
from Ukraine visit Russian monasteries and
churches. This interactive process serves as a
clear expression of our spiritual unity, which we
should carefully preserve and strengthen.
--Master, what is now the condition of
relations between the Russian Orthodox church and
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia?
--The particular nature of the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside Russia was the consequence of the
tragic events in Russia at the beginning of the
twentieth century. During the civil war some of
our episcopate were forced to leave the
motherland. New agencies of church administration
appeared outside Russia. Over the course of
decades the opposition of political systems
intensified the ecclesiastical administrative
division, whose consequences we must overcome.
Today the reasons for the ancient strife are in
the past. The church in Russia is free. There are
no impediments to our reunification. After the
recent visit to Moscow of a delegation of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia both we and
they have created commissions which are supposed
to find mutually acceptable resolutions of the
questions of church unity. The principal goal of
our dialogue is the restoration of prayer
fellowship.
--Is there in the Russian Orthodox church a
possibility of helping the Orthodox believers who
have remained in the former republics of the
Soviet Union, especially in those where the Muslim
population predominates?
--After the fall of the Soviet Union our fellow
countrymen in the republics found themselves in a
complex and sometimes even catastrophic, difficult
situation. They found themselves in a completely
unfamiliar cultural and political situation and
were often denied contacts with Russia. The only
spiritual haven for such people, and not only
Orthodox believers, is the Russian church
building.
In all regions of the former Soviet Union we have
managed to preserve dioceses and our clergy are
continuing to serve in the churches. After the
fall of USSR and the formation of new independent
states the Russian Orthodox church remains the
only firm basis for maintaining the national and
cultural ideals of our fellow countrymen in the
enormous postsoviet space. We seek new forms of
cooperation with the authorities of one or another
region or country and we are trying to achieve
mutual understanding and support.
Maintenance of a high level of interreligious
dialogue remains important. The Russian Orthodox
church is its active participant. I want to recall
that in Moscow on 2-4 March of this year the
Second Interreligious Peacemaking Forum was held,
which assembled representatives of Orthodox
believers, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews from
Russia and CIS states.
The main task of the Interreligious Council of CIS
Countries that was established by the forum is
coordination of the activity of religious
organizations for preventing interethnic and
interreligious conflicts, provision of a more
complete and fruitful cooperation among religious
leaders, and the maintenance of the traditional
cultural and spiritual heritage.
I sincerely hope that the activity of the newly
formed Interreligious Council will facilitate
improvement of the situation of Orthodox believers
in CIS countries and prevent the manifestation of
xenophobia and religious intolerance.
Social service reborn
--Could you describe the practical aid by the
Russian church for the elderly and invalids,
particularly in homes for the aged and shelters
for the homeless.
--At the present time the social ministry, that
constitutes a most important element of the
mission of the Russian Orthodox church in the
modern world, is gradually being reborn. During
the domination of the atheist ideology, all
charitable activity of our church was forbidden by
law. Today we must resurrect social ministry and
charitable activity practically in a vacuum.
Church structures have been rebuilt, which are
called to coordinate efforts in the area of
charity. In our church there exists the Synodal
Department of Charity and Social Ministry. At the
diocesan level there exist similar institutions.
Of course, the level of intensity of social work
differs in various regions. It depends on many
factors. For example, in Moscow there is an
extremely active diocesan commission on social
ministry. It determines the strategy of the
development of charitable ministry, seeks for
resources and sponsors for carrying out specific
projects, and gives parish clergy recommendations
helping their work among the "newly poor." The
activity of the commission comprises very diverse
groups: invalids, prisoners, homeless, refugees
and displaced persons, elderly and needy, and
orphaned children.
All dioceses of the Moscow patriarchate conduct
charitable work. They create brotherhoods,
sisterhoods, nursing schools, and church
charitable organizations and religious training
centers. They have opened shelters for the
homeless, almshouses, free soup kitchens for the
needy, and overnight lodging. They have worked out
a special program for victims of AIDS and
successfully operate centers for rehabilitation of
those suffering drug and alcohol addiction, and
they give aid to people suffering from the
activity of totalitarian sects and cults.
Here are some concrete examples. The "Life-giving
Spring" in the Tsaritsyno Moscow district is a
center successfully giving aid to crippled
children. In the St. Nicholas church in the Moscow
suburb of Zdekhovo construction is under way of a
village for elderly people. In the patriarchal
annex in Novoe Simonovo there is a Sunday school
and services are conducted for the deaf.
In the Smolensk diocese entrusted to me social
activity is conducted in close cooperation with
the administration of Smolensk province. We have
signed an agreement on cooperation with the
governor and representatives of the diocese
participate in working session of departments of
the administration. Last year in Smolensk diocese
there was a broad antidrug event called "Journey
into the future," in which representatives of
other traditional confessions took part along with
Orthodox. An event of charity for orphaned
children, "Hope for happiness," was held last
year, too.
I am happy to note that our initiatives are viewed
favorably and with understanding on the part of
the government. In 2002, as a result of
conversations with the government of the Russian
federation, we reached an agreement for a
favorable tariff for religious organizations on
public services, orphanages, and charitable soup
kitchens. This will help support and develop our
social projects. I hope that such mutual
understanding and readiness for dialogue on the
part of governing authorities and representatives
of traditional confessions will be maintained in
the future as well.
--Please explain how pensions for priests and
monastics will be calculated, in connection with
the new law on pensions, and how this relates to
the premise that the church is separated from the
state?
--Clergy and monastics, like all citizens of
Russia, are subject to obligatory taxes in
accordance with legislation. It was that way also
in the Soviet Union, where taxes on priests were
more than half of their income, and it remains
that way after its fall. Today from the salaries
paid by parishes and monasteries a certain
percentage is designated for the Pension Fund.
Later the fund will pay the pensions of retired
clerics of the Russian Orthodox church. I do not
see in this any violation of the constitutional
principle of the separation of church and state.
About suicide, publicity, and ecumenism
--Is it true that funerals for suicides are
performed in Smolensk churches?
--People who commit suicide have refused to bear
their cross in life and doubt the saving
providence of God for each person. According to
Orthodox canons, suicides may not have church
funerals or commemoration in churches. Exception
can be made only after an investigation by a
church court, in the case of insanity or those who
were unable to control their behavior or take
responsibility for it. Back in the nineteenth
century in Smolensk diocese the Thursday before
Trinity Forebears Saturday was set aside for
commemoration of these unfortunate souls, the
so-called "Semik."
--Television broadcasts on a practically equal
basis sermons by Orthodox priests and non-Orthodox
western preachers. Who regulates the number of
such broadcasts, and how? Does the Russian church
pay for television?
--The Russian Orthodox church does not have the
means for buying air time. Television companies do
not give us favorable rates. Orthodox clergy
sometimes are invited on television programs as
experts in order to provide the church's opinion
on one or another question. The initiative in such
an event comes from the producers of the
television programs.
It is not surprising that western preachers appear
on air more regularly than Orthodox clergy,
especially in the provinces of the Russian
federation, It is obvious that they have a way to
pay for television. One can draw such a conclusion
from the fact of their frequent appearance on the
screen and the disproportionate weight given the
religious organizations they represent.
--Your excellency, can you explain what
ecumenism is and how the Russian Orthodox church
views it?
--Ecumenism (from the Greek word "oikumena"--inhabited
space) in the broadest sense designates the
movement of various Christian confessions to reach
unity in faith. This movement arose in the second
half of the nineteenth century and it was
organizationally formed on the basis of the past.
The result was the creation of inter-Christian
organizations like the World Council of Churches,
of which the Russian Orthodox church is a member
as are all other local Orthodox churches except
for the Bulgarian and Georgian.
Our church prefers to speak about participation
not in the ecumenical movement but in multilateral
inter-Christian dialogue. This is connected with
the fact that ecumenism is understood differently
in the protestant world and much of what is
accepted there does not conform with Orthodox
doctrine. We firmly believe in the One Holy
Orthodox Church, created for the sake of the
salvation of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself and founded upon the apostles.
Participation by Orthodox representatives in
inter-Christian contacts is conditioned first of
all on the hope for a return by the Christian
world to the immutable source of the church's
faith. Specifically, it is our attempt to achieve
this in the continuing theological dialogues. In
addition, we cooperate with Christians of other
confessions in the social sphere in various
programs of a humanitarian character.
Don't give your address and telephone number
to strangers
--Nowadays very many sects have developed.
Please tell us how a person who is not very deeply
acquainted with the Law of God (after all, soviet
education!) can detect in time whether he is being
seduced into sectarian activity by someone who
seems to care and makes all kinds of flattering
suggestions. What is the first thing that should
tell a person that he should be cautious?
--There really are many sects and each of them
tries to acquire new members. In hunting souls
they use an approach of "heightened kindness" as
you mentioned. At the first stage, the contrast of
the "loving" community of sectarians and the
outside world is stupefying and creates a
dependency in the neophyte similar to drug
addiction and a desire to spend more time within
the sect. To detect the insincerity of the
sectarian and to distinguish his professional love
from real love is difficult. It becomes a torrent.
For example, Jehovah's Witnesses come themselves
into a building and telephone every apartment,
following detailed plans. Jehovists methodically
canvass the residents, recording the results in
account books, and they leave behind their
"Watchtower" magazine and offer help in studying
sacred scripture. Incidentally, I want to warn
that the text of the Bible that the Jehovists have
is different from the canonical text. They have
introduced changes in order to remove the
contradictions between their doctrine and the Word
of God. It is wrong to use such a text.
Followers of the Moon sect, who call their
organization "Unification Church," have somewhat
different methods. They approach people on the
street and give them colorful leaflets and
booklets with invitations to attend their meetings
and seminars. One can always ask the street
preachers who is the founder of their faith.
Moonites admit in the end that their "divine
teacher" is "Saint" Moon.
It is often possible to meet members of the
so-called "Church of Christ." To the question of
who they are they usually answer: "We are simply
Christians and it makes no difference to us what
denomination you belong to. We accept everybody,
including Orthodox. The "Church of Christ" often
invites people to various seminars and courses in
the English language and sometimes to management
and business courses.
It is not to hard to identify a sectarian in a
preacher, while if he belongs to a so-called
"eastern cult," then it is quite simple. Their
names, "Society of Krishna Consciousness," and "Ananda
Marga," speak for themselves. If any doubt
remains, go to a nearby Orthodox church and show
the priest the leaflets and books that they give
you, or describe the contents of the conversation.
You will be helped to figure it out. And one more
advice: never give your address or telephone
number. It often becomes very difficult to cut off
subsequent phone calls and visits. (tr. by PDS)
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