Russian church head: Crisis also a blessing

AP ^ | March 22, 2009

[Tailgunner Joe]

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 prevent the emergence of unsustainable, speculative economic bubbles, according to RIA-Novosti.

Kirill was elected as Moscow patriarch, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in January after the death of Alexy II, who had served since before the 1991 collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.

RIA-Novosti said Kirill also suggested celebrating June 12 _ a state holiday called the Day of Russia _ as the birthday of Alexander Nevsky, a medieval leader revered in the church as a saint.

The suggestion could fuel concern among secular Russians, who are wary of the church's close ties with the Kremlin.

It would lend religious overtones to a holiday created to mark the 1990 declaration of sovereignty by Russia's parliament, but then reinvented amid regret over the Soviet collapse and Russia's loss of control over other ex-Soviet republics.

Kirill seemed to echo that regret, saying many Russians have a negative attitude toward the holiday because it used to known as Independence Day. "Independence from whom? If it's from Kiev, then I'm against such independence," he was quoted as saying.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Kirill said he hopes to soon visit the Ukrainian capital, though he named no date.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Patriarch Kirill leads religious service in Kaliningrad’s cathedral - “Kaliningrad occupies a special place in our country. This is the western frontier, this is a land that is separated form the rest of Russia but at the same time an isolated and very important part of our Fatherland, and the church has always had special tasks here,” the patriarch said.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He may be on to something.