Russian Orthodox urged to maintain world links with other Christians
-14/11/06
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Russian Orthodox urged to maintain world links with other Christians
-14/11/06
A senior Russian Orthodox hierarch has said that it is important for his church to continue its participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) while warning of the dangers of self-isolation during a radio interview – reports Sophia Kishkovsky from Moscow for Ecumenical News International.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told Radio Mayak, a state-run radio station, on 8 November that the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) is the best forum for the Russian Orthodox Church to bear witness and understand the state of contemporary Christianity.
“On that platform,” he said, referring to the WCC, “we have the opportunity to immediately, instantaneously, see what is happening in the Christian world … to form a clear understanding of where contemporary Christianity is heading, to bear witness to our position and convince others,” He was responding to a listener’s question during a call-in as part of the broadcast.
Many believers and Orthodox organizations in Russia are said to be opposed to the church’s participation in the church unity movement and the issue was one of the stumbling blocks in reunion talks between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a virulently anti-communist emigre group that broke with Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Metropolitan Kirill, chairperson of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, spoke of the dangers of cutting ties with the world, both in the religious arena and beyond.
“If you take it further, then Russia should go into isolation, withdraw from the UN, from regional organizations,” he said during the Radio Mayak broadcast, as reported by the Interfax news agency on 9 November. “Can we live in isolation in the modern world? This is suicide.”
Kirill described in Biblical terms what the only acceptable reason for withdrawal from the WCC could be: “When we understand that the World Council of Church is ‘the council of the wicked’, then we will leave, but for now one doesn’t get this impression,” he said.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]
Russian Orthodox urged to maintain world links with other Christians
-14/11/06
A senior Russian Orthodox hierarch has said that it is important for his church to continue its participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) while warning of the dangers of self-isolation during a radio interview – reports Sophia Kishkovsky from Moscow for Ecumenical News International.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told Radio Mayak, a state-run radio station, on 8 November that the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) is the best forum for the Russian Orthodox Church to bear witness and understand the state of contemporary Christianity.
“On that platform,” he said, referring to the WCC, “we have the opportunity to immediately, instantaneously, see what is happening in the Christian world … to form a clear understanding of where contemporary Christianity is heading, to bear witness to our position and convince others,” He was responding to a listener’s question during a call-in as part of the broadcast.
Many believers and Orthodox organizations in Russia are said to be opposed to the church’s participation in the church unity movement and the issue was one of the stumbling blocks in reunion talks between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a virulently anti-communist emigre group that broke with Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Metropolitan Kirill, chairperson of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, spoke of the dangers of cutting ties with the world, both in the religious arena and beyond.
“If you take it further, then Russia should go into isolation, withdraw from the UN, from regional organizations,” he said during the Radio Mayak broadcast, as reported by the Interfax news agency on 9 November. “Can we live in isolation in the modern world? This is suicide.”
Kirill described in Biblical terms what the only acceptable reason for withdrawal from the WCC could be: “When we understand that the World Council of Church is ‘the council of the wicked’, then we will leave, but for now one doesn’t get this impression,” he said.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]