Patriarch-Catholicos Karekin Narsessian of all Armenia (1952- ) with Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias (1946- ) at the monument to the Armenian Genocide
Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias said that the Church couldn’t participate in any form of partisan politics. “Not only is the Church unable to create its own political party, it cannot support any given political party. It should distance itself from political divisions, for it is the instrument that transmits fundamental values to our peoples”, the patriarch said on Thursday at Yerevan State University. He said that if we stick to fundamentals, “Everyone will come to church and say, ‘this is my place’, no matter if they are Communists or democrats or nationalists or monarchists. There have been times in the lives of our peoples and society where no one was secure, however, this space (the Church: Interfax) worked fully as a unifying force. Such was seen in the history of both the Russian and Armenian peoples”. He added, “Otherwise, if the Church became politically active, people would come to church and ask, ‘Am I amongst my political opponents or allies here?’” In 2000, the Archpastoral Council of the MP forbade the participation of clergy and canonical church structures in partisan politics, and, furthermore, forbade the clergy from belonging to any particular political party.
18 March 2010
Interfax-Religion
Voices from Russia 
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