Posted on 05/20/2016 6:47:24 AM PDT by marshmallow
Moscow, May 19, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that the answer to the banishment of Christianity on a global scale is one of the challenges facing the Russian Church.
"We accept the new challenges that our Church is facing with dignity, and these challenges are very formidable and have a global nature. And, probably, the most difficult and important challenge is the changing attitude to faith and Christianity in many countries of Europe and America," the patriarch said following a prayer service in the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow on Thursday.
The prayer service was held in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, which is located in the territory of the monastery.
Christians are currently going through difficult times; "the Church is banished from the public space under the influence of false philosophical and political beliefs," the patriarch said.
He also appraised the situation with the Church in Russia.
"Today our Church has considerable support from people and social organizations. We have kind and, as the saying goes, constructive dialogue with the country's authorities and it certainly promotes the solution of many issues," he said.
Before his election to the current post, the patriarch headed the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, which is in charge of relations of the Russian Church with neighboring countries and beyond, for 20 years.
A new Cold War and ideological battle.
A Christian Church in Russia, militant about the decline of the traditional values, vs. a materialist and leftist West, intent on controlling the world.
Its like some episode of Twilight Zone, where everything is reversed. God - you can take me now, I have seen everything!
Solzhenitsyn warned of this.
I know the feeling.
The legend of the “Third Rome” comes to mind, when Russia saves Europe and returns her to Christ. A new Empire to about to be formed—a new Rome. Orthodoxy will win, Islamic fundalmentalism will fold up.
Not really the Twilight Zone—the Russian Orthodox Church simply has taken the ideological ground originally held by the “atheist” Soviets. Peas in a pod.
One is Christian and traditionalist, the other was atheist, materialist and political - please explain
Both claim(ed) to be opposed to Western “materialism.”
There is some bizarre history at work, here. In its early years, Christendom had several capitals. Eventually they coalesced at Rome. But with the growth of the Christian Roman Empire, a second capital emerged in Constantinople.
A good thing, because the western Roman Empire in Italy soon fell to Barbarian hordes. So Constantinople became the new capital of both Christendom and the Roman Empire.
Then, in 1453, invading Muslims finally conquered Constantinople. At that time, the Russians assumed that Moscow would become the new capital of Christendom. However, by then, Rome had recovered, so the capital moved back there.
And the Russians have never gotten over the snub.
Ironically, while many of Putin’s adventures have come a cropper, whenever he embraces Christianity, he wins hands down. And make no mistake, he is more than aware of the importance of Christianity to Russia.
He blew about everyone’s mind by sponsoring a synod of Orthodox Christian leaders (except Roman) in Moscow. That alone was enough for him to be declared a Russian Orthodox Saint someday.
If he keeps it up, it will increase Russia’s pull throughout the Orthodoxy, and because the Roman Pope is problematic, at best, Moscow may indeed finally achieve its long sought after goal.
Putin may actually achieve that rare title of “Defender of the Faith.”
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