Patriarch Aleksei Asked Us to Maintain the Unity of the Church, According to Metropolitan Kirill

Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias (1929-2008), at the Reunion Liturgy of the MP and ROCOR on 17 May 2007 at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Truly, blessed unity in action!

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, said that the late Patriarch Aleksei asked us to “to take a special care for the unity of the Church”. In keeping with this, Vladyki Kirill said that the attempts by some to introduce discord into church life on the eve of the election of a new First Hierarch were sinful and fruitless. “We pray for the unity of the Church, especially now, on the eve of the Local Council, as some factions and elements attempt to bend people to their opinions. All of this is nothing but sin, emptiness, and froth, which the Lord shall blow away with one puff of His breath”, Metropolitan Kirill said on Sunday at the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow after the conclusion of a festal Divine Liturgy dedicated to the memory of Hieromartyr Hilarion Troitsky.

St Hilarion Troitsky (1886-1929), one of the leading figures in the restoration of the Patriarchate of Moscow and all Russia in 1917, was an outstanding theologian, a champion of church unity, and close colleague of Patriarch St Tikhon Bellavin (1865-1925, ruled 1917-25). He was one of the thousands of Orthodox faithful who suffered for the faith during the Bolshevik repressions in Russia. His motto was, “We should not sit behind the walls of our monasteries and seminaries”, so, he conducted active missionary work, including amongst the Bolsheviks, engaging them in debates on religion in the polytechnic museum, in the process, skilfully refuting the arguments of the atheists. In the end, St Hilarion was imprisoned on Solovki in the Russian North in the White Sea, then, he was sent into exile, where he died.

In the opinion of Metropolitan Kirill, the faithful of the MP are called to pray so that the Lord would send us a First Hierarch “who has a pure Faith, who would accept martyrdom, if such were to be his lot. We believe that not only our human decision, but, the Will of God, shall be accomplished at the forthcoming election of our new First Hierarch, so, we ask that the prayers of St Hilarion be with us, as they were with Patriarch St Tikhon”.

29 December 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=28096

Editor’s Note:

I found a major lacunae in Orthodox Wiki as I was researching some of the details in this post (dates and whatnot), and I was shocked to find that “Mother” Maria Skobtsova, the questionable (at best… she is the darling of the Renovationist heretics) figure from Paris, was included in “Russian saints”, but, St Hilarion Troitsky, a MUCH more substantial and holy figure was omitted. This is shameful. It makes one wonder. Shall someone remedy this lack?

BMD

Metropolitan Kirill says that Orthodox Believers Should Keep the Purity of the Faith and Share It with Those Who are Near and Far

Icon of New Hieromartyr and Confessor St Hilarion Troitsky, Bishop of Vereisk (1886-1929). The words on the scroll are, “Outside the Church, There is No Salvation”. This icon is from the chapel at Butyrki Prison in Moscow, where St Hilarion served part of his sentence. It was painted by Georgi from Istra in 2005.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, thinks that Orthodox believers should not avoid dialogue with Christians of other confessions, as this is according to the canonical tradition of Orthodox Church, its dogma, and practise. Last Sunday, Metropolitan Kirill conducted a festal Divine Liturgy at the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, in the presence of the relics of Holy Hieromartyr Hilarion Troitsky, who defended Orthodoxy in the early years of the atheist repression in the USSR. “It was a time when it was necessary to protect the teaching of the Church, and Vladyki Hilarion rejected the so-called ‘Branch Theory’, which claimed that all confessions are branches of one and the same tree, and salvation can be found in equal degree in all of them”, Vladyki Kirill said on Monday, in answering the questions of journalists in Moscow.

According to Metropolitan Kirill, “Our attitude to non-Orthodox confessions must be based on the mainstream elements of our theological tradition and the Holy Fathers”. He went on to say that, specifically, in following this tradition, the Archpastoral Council passed unanimously a document on the attitude of Orthodoxy to non-Orthodox confessions, which “clearly defines such behaviour”. Metropolitan Kirill noted that St Hilarion did not shun correspondence with non-Orthodox people, for example, he wrote a series of letters to Robert Gardiner, the secretary of the Commission appointed to arrange a World Conference of Christianity, the precursor of the World Council of Churches, and, “near the end of his life, Mr Gardner almost converted to Orthodoxy. Preserving and protecting the purity of Orthodox faith, we must share our Orthodox faith with those who are near and far, we should keep on doing it as St Hilarion did”, according to Metropolitan Kirill.

29 December 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=28106

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin says that the Rejection of Christianity will lead The West to “A War of All against All”

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), Deputy Chairman of the MP DECR

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, on Saturday, on the Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopedia (Orthodox Encyclopaedia) TV programme on TV Tsentr (TV Centre), predicted that, if the West finally rejects its Christian heritage, it will face “a war of all against all”. “When the West tries to expel, to erase, every reference to Christ from the public square, it’s nothing but a sign of pathology, of a fight against their own conscience, their own tradition. It won’t surprise me, if the West loses itself entirely in this fight”. According to Fr Vsevolod, “Until now, the West has lived on the reserve of moral stability accumulated in the Middle Ages. Take this reserve away and the West will again start the war of all against all, not in the form of wars between Belgium and France, Germany and England, but, rather, between economic and political blocs, who, very probably, led us to the present economic crisis”.

He noted that, today, the oppression of Christians is a very serious problem, whilst no one even mentioned it five years ago. “There always have been people who hate the Church, and there shall always be such”, Fr Vsevolod noted. “The reasons may be different, but, the most basic factor is that a person living in sin is afraid that the Church may awaken his conscience”. In his opinion, “Christians should struggle against it not by force, not ‘with clubs and sticks’, but, by using common prayer and civil actions based on that prayer, for prayer is ‘stronger than anything’. We shouldn’t try to wipe out our persecutors by reciprocal repressions; we should try to change these people. The 2,000-year experience of the Church proves it is possible to change even the most extreme persecutor of the Church, if we can show him that in hating the Church, he is not happy, not free, and not irretrievably lost in his sin, that he is subject to evil forces who twist his life as they will”, Fr Vsevolod said.

29 December 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=28100

President Medvedev Encouraged All Russians to Participate in Sport

President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- )

President Dmitri Medvedev encouraged all Russians to be actively involved in gymnastics and sport. He urged all local governments to contribute in every way possible to the building of sport arenas, swimming pools, and football pitches.

“There is no lack of young people, yes, even amongst adults, who wish to participate in sport. If our students dream of playing in world championships and the Olympics, then, most adults and youths work out and dive into swimming pools for one purpose only, to keep up their health and keep down their weight. Lately, there are more possibilities for people to do this as the regional governments are paying more attention to the sport infrastructure”, President Medvedev emphasised.

“Now, it’s fashionable to engage in sport. People do it with pleasure, they sign up for teams, and they play for fun… this has become a need for them and this means that we now have a healthier nation. In many respects, this is due to the recent string of victories by our athletes. By doing this, the triumph of their victories is not forgotten. Those exciting plays are burned into our memory as positive moments in our lives, and we see enormous pride in Russia, our athletes, and even for our fans, which support and cheer on their favourites. Now, the most important thing is to support, in every way possible, this trend for popular sport participation. We must build all sorts of sport facilities, in spite of the present economic situation”, Mr Medvedev concluded.

In his turn, Vitaly Mutko, the Minister of Sport, promised that the entire sport programme shall be executed in a timely fashion. “Our plans for the development of physical culture and sport shall not change, and the development of mass physical culture shall receive a high priority, first of all, in schools and institutes of higher education (VUZs). By 2015, we must build about 4,000 stadia and sport centres. The present economic crisis shall not reduce the federal budget for sport. I can say the same concerning the preparation of the Olympic team for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the construction of the Olympic facilities in Sochi”, Mr Mutko noted.

26 December 2008

Svetlana Andreyeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=95547&cid=25&p=26.12.2008