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A senior Belarusian official invited the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Church leaders to have their first meeting in Belarus in efforts to end the 950-year schism. Speaking during an online news conference on Wednesday, Leonid Gulyako, an official in charge of religious and ethnicity affairs, said Belarus was an ideal place for the historic meeting. "In Belarus, the Orthodox Church has not distanced itself from the Catholic Church. A husband and wife in a family belonging to the two different religions is a common thing in Belarus," Gulyako said adding however that 85% of believers in the country are Orthodox...

Festivities in Rome this weekend for the dedication of an Orthodox church on the grounds of the Russian Embassy near the Vatican attest to a surprising but marked warming of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican in recent months, according to church officials and analysts. If trends hold true, they add, a meeting of the pope and the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Russia may be close. Whether even that could begin to overcome the centuries-old hatred surrounding the two churches’ conflicting authority over Christians is another question. To mark the dedication Sunday of the Church...

Calling the economic downturn a "blessing," Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill said it would allow people to consider and re-evaluate their lives. "The crisis, in a sense, may help our people reach the right attitude toward work," Kirill was quoted as saying during a visit to Russia's Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. "Everyone should ask himself whether his salary is proportional to his real contribution." The crisis has put millions in Russia out of work, after nearly a decade of oil-fueled growth. Kirill compared it, however, to a flood that is sweeping away economic falsehoods and excessive self-indulgence and helping to...

Moscow, March 16, Interfax - Last Saturday, March 14, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill celebrated the 33rd anniversary of his elevation to the rank of bishop by his confessor Metropolitan Nikodim. To commemorate this event, Patriarch Kirill conducted the Divine Liturgy at the Moscow church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Khoroshovo and upon its completion appealed to the clergy to selflessly serve God and people without concerns for health and career. "You should never spare yourselves while serving God… You should never say: I won't do this or that to keep my health, because this is the time...

Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-25087?l=englishKirill Urges Collaboration Among Christians Patriarch Sends Note to Benedict XVI MOSCOW, FEB. 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Being a witness to Christ and the message of the Gospel is a fundamental duty of Christians, and especially of its leaders, says the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Patriarch Kirill wrote this in a message sent to Benedict XVI, in which he thanked the Pope for congratulating him upon his election as patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The patriarch explained in the note, translated by L'Osservatore Romano, that "among the many duties of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church,...

2009-02-05 14:08:00Christians-liberals once hissed off Patriarch Kirill for opposing divorces and homosexual "marriages" – witness Moscow, February 5, Interfax – Head of the Information and Publishing Administration of the Synodal Youth Department Deacon Mikhail Pershin believes that one of the main talents of the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill is his ability to “secure foundations” of Orthodoxy in inter-confessional dialogue. Fr. Mikhail told in his interview to the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily how at the inter-Christian Assembly 2007 in Romania Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad specified “extremely negative” attitude of the Russian Church to legalization of...

Moscow, February 4, Interfax - President of the Cuban State Council and the Council of Ministers Raul Castro met with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill in the patriarchal chambers of the Christ the Savior Cathedral on Tuesday evening. Castro was the first foreign leader Patriarch Kirill has met with in his new capacity. Last October the Russian Orthodox Church has awarded Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his brother Raul for their contribution in building an Orthodox church in Havana and interreligious cooperation. The former Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill (the present...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI gave a chalice to the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and expressed his hope that Catholics and Russian Orthodox can improve their relationship. "It is my earnest hope that we will continue to cooperate in finding ways to foster and strengthen communion in the body of Christ in fidelity to our savior's prayer that all may be one so that the world may believe," the pope said. Pope Benedict's message to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow was delivered by a high-level Vatican delegation attending his enthronement liturgy in Moscow Feb. 1. The...

2009-02-03 12:23:00Patriarch Kirill hopes for broader dialogue with Catholics (updated) Moscow, February 3, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said he hoped relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church would further develop. The Russian Patriarch met with an official delegation of the Holy See, which attended his enthronement, at his working residence in Moscow on Monday. Patriarch Kirill "expressed the hope that relations between the two churches would further develop in an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation, primarily in defending and asserting the traditional Christian values in Europe and in the...

Kirill has been enthroned as the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia and as the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The 62-year-old was crowned at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were in attendance along with emissaries from different branches of the Orthodox Church and foreign guests. The new Patriarch was elected to the position following the death of Alexiy II in December. Many in the country believe the new Patriarch will guide the church on a more independent path than Alexiy, as the Church tries...

Great revival? In 1990, the Church chose Alexiy II as its leader. He remained Patriarch until his death last month. The reconstruction of Christ the Saviour is the centrepiece of a huge programme of church restoration and rebuilding which has transformed the appearance of towns and villages across Russia. But appearances can deceive. While the vast majority of Russians now readily identify themselves as Orthodox Christians - opinion polls regularly suggest around two-thirds - it seems largely to be a question of culture, rather than faith. Icons may have replaced soft-porn pictures as the most common sight on a Moscow...

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - Metropolitan Kirill has been elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Kirill received 508 votes, and the second candidate, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk - 169 votes. A total of 700 ballots were cast in the vote, with 23 recognized as invalid. The Local Council, which is a council of bishops, priests, monks and laymen, including political figures and businessmen, gathered in Moscow earlier on Tuesday to elect the new Russian Orthodox Church leader. The 700-plus-member group convened for a session to elect a...

Patriarch-elect Kirill Moscow, Jan 27, 2009 / 05:21 pm (CNA).- Meeting in Moscow today, the Russian Orthodox Church has elected Metropolitan Kirill as its new patriarch. Patriarch-elect Kirill’s election is being hailed as a boon for those seeking to buttress Orthodoxy against a spreading secularism. According to the Associated Press, Metropolitan Kirill received 508 of the 700 votes cast.  Prior to today’s election, Metropolitan Kirill was the most well-known candidate, having served as the head of the External Affairs Office for the Moscow patriarchate. Since the death of Patriarch Alexy II on December 5, 2008, he has functioned as the...