Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all Russia (1929-2008) at the laying of the cornerstone of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow in 1995
On Friday, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia passed away in Moscow in the 80th year of his life. He was the fifteenth First Hierarch of the Patriarchate of Moscow and all Russia since the introduction of the office in 1589. His pastoral ministry began at a time when the government showed an undisguised hostility to the Church. Aleksei II, who was known as Aleksei Mikhailovich Rediger in the world, was born on 23 February 1929 in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. In his childhood years, he sang in the church choir and went on annual pilgrimages to monasteries with his parents. In 1961, Aleksei was raised to the episcopate as the Bishop of Tallinn and all Estonia, and he served concurrently as the deputy chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the MP. A Local Council of the MP elected him as patriarch on 3 June 1990.
Specifically, one of the most significant acts of his tenure was the reconciliation of the MP with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, thus, restoring the unity of the largest Local Church in world Orthodoxy. Therefore, many in Russia commemorate Aleksei as a man who rebuilt the Church after the years of state persecution. Professor Andrei Zubov emphasised, “Truly, the role of the holy patriarch was enormous. He knew how to conduct church business without creating division, he preserved its unity, and he set it upon a new course. Of course, one of his most important actions was the Archpastoral Council of 2000 that canonised the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Bolshevik Yoke and decisively broke the ties of the church with the Soviet past, clearing away the legacy of the times of Stalin, Krushchyov, and Brezhnev. He transformed a body that was tormented by persecution into a Church that was blessed by its martyrs. This was a momentous change. God entrusted Patriarch Aleksei with the leadership of the Church at a period of great crisis, and His Holiness selected a path that was, perhaps, the best way, although one could also say that it was not the most ideal solution. God willing, the MP shall continue on this path, with necessary corrections, of course, so that the Church shall continue to advance”.
Many knew Patriarch Aleksei II as a public figure. He paid considerable attention to the establishment of a new relationship between the Church and the state in Russia. In this realm, with great conviction, he adhered to the principle of the separation of the mission of the Church from the administrative apparatus of the state, each party keeping to the ideal of non-intervention into the internal affairs of the other. During the political crisis that erupted in the autumn of 1993, the patriarch took upon himself the role of a peacemaker, he invited the contending factions to a dialogue on the problems facing them, and he acted as an impartial mediator in the ensuing negotiations. Aleksei II also spoke for peace concerning the conflict in the Balkans, the Armenian-Azeri dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, the simmering difficulty in Moldova, the events in the northern Caucasus, the problem of the Middle East, and the American invasion of Iraq. There is great hope in the MP that new patriarch, who must be elected by a Local Council no later than May 2009, shall continue the course of Aleksei II, and that he shall carry out the needed reforms in the Church with the same tact as did Patriarch Aleksei.
5 December 2008
Armen Gasparyan
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=91993&cid=434&p=05.12.2008 (in Russian)
