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...more, from one of the Russian government-owned publications.

Russian Orthodox Church looks for allies from Vatican to New York

15:04
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050623/40748966.html

MOSCOW, June 23. (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church has recently shown its ability to come to terms with difficult partners, such as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Catholics, as well as being able to maintain contacts with the most powerful international union of denominations, the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Today's issue of Gazeta, a popular daily, reported that this week four conciliatory documents had been published on how the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia understood problems. This coincided with a Moscow visit made by Cardinal Walter Casper, the chief negotiator between the ROC and the Vatican, and a delegation of the WCC. Yesterday Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations department, met him to discuss the problem of Catholic activity in Ukraine and Russia.

An obstacle to reconciliation between the two Russian churches after a split of 80 years remained the attitudes to Metropolitan Sergy's declaration of 1927 that recognized the Bolsheviks and the ROC's participation in ecumenical international organizations. The adopted documents say that the Church's rejection of the declaration is a fait accompli and this "opens the way to full fraternal communication."

As to the ROC's ecumenical contacts, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the Patriarchate's secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, says that the Church has defined "the borders and spheres of justified and desirable cooperation with Christians of other denominations."

Experts believe this diplomacy reflects the struggle between two groups in the Church determining internal church policy. "Metropolitan Kirill remains responsible for the Catholic and Protestant areas of the ROC's policy, as well as for relations with other canonic churches," said Maksim Shevchenko, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies of Modern Religion and Policy. "In this respect, peace with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is a PR move, whereas the steps of the external relations department comprise the real policy. An alliance with the ROCOR will lead to the inclusion in the episcopate of opponents of Catholics and ecumenists fighting for power in the interests of a small group. Meanwhile Metropolitan Kirill works in the interests of the Church and Russia."