Department for External Church Relations
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: Inter-Christian relations are in a protracted crisis, as polarization of Christians' opinion on liberal or traditional reading of Christian message was added to classical differences among confessions
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in his report presented at the Bishops’ Conference held in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on 2 February 2010 spoke about cooperation with inter-Christian organizations.
“Today the inter-Christian relations are in a protracted crisis. Added to classical differences among confession was polarization of Christians' opinion on the liberal or traditional reading of Christian message,” His Holiness remarked.
Under these difficult conditions, the World Council of Churches (WCC) remains a partner of the Russian Orthodox Church in multilateral dialogue. A new General Secretary, Norwegian pastor Olav Fykse Tveit, was elected at the WCC Central Committee session last August. “I hope he will manage to find a reasonable balance in the relations between the Orthodox and Protestant member churches, and to overcome a world outlook crisis in this major international Christian organization,” His Holiness said.
As to the relations with another inter-Christian organization, namely the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Russian Orthodox Church being one of its founders, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia explained that the Moscow Patriarchate suspended its participation in the CEC activities in October 2008, when the CEC leadership refused to consider the accepting of the Estonian Orthodox Church into membership in defiance of the CEC rules. ‘As a result, we had to cancel the participation of the Moscow Patriarchate delegation in the 13th General Assembly that took place in Lyon, France, on 15-22 July 2009. Meanwhile, the CEC leaders did not expressed their wish to consider the question of the Estonian Orthodox Church membership at the new CEC Central Committee session in December 2009, but postponed it to the next session due to be held in October 2010. Such a policy makes our participation in the CEC activities impossible for almost the entire year.” However, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (Patriarchate of Constantinople) was elected President of the Conference of European Churches last December, and this gives us hope for a just solution of the problem, His Holiness Patriarch believes.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed his opinion of the Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee (CICC) set up with an active participation of the Moscow Patriarchate for the CIS and Baltic countries. Its work was resumed in 2008 after a six-year interruption. His Holiness thinks that the CICC could be a fruitful inter-Christian initiative against the background of crisis in the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches. His Holiness underscored: “Almost all Christian Churches and communities of East European region adhere to the traditional view of the moral values of Christianity, and this fact gives grounds for successful work of the CICC.”
A plenary session of the CICC on “Christian Family – a little church and a basis of healthy society” is planned for February 4. Observers from some churches of Western Europe who are faithful to the norms of Christian moral teaching are supposed to be involved. This authoritative gathering is expected to adopt a programme declaration.
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