Primate of Russian Church visits St Genevieve Religious Education Centre

On 5 December 2016, while in France, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited St Genevieve Religious Education Centre of the diocese of Korsun.

At the home chapel of St Genevieve Centre, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated a molieben of thanksgiving.
During the prayer service, hymns were sung on the Church Slavonic and French languages.

Among those praying in the Church of Ss. Genevieve of Paris and Martin the Confessor were Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilnius and Lithuania; Archbishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe; Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; Bishop Nestor of Korsun; and Bishop Antony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad.

After the thanksgiving Hieromonk Alexander (Sinyakov), rector of the educational institution, greeted His Holiness, saying in particular, “It is a great joy and honour for us to pray with you at this home chapel of our religious education centre, and we would like to express our filial gratitude to you. At this church on weekdays and at our wooden Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Saturdays and Sundays we offer up our prayers to God for Your Holiness, for the Christ-loving peoples of France and Russia, and for the unity of the faithful in Christ the Saviour. These daily services bring together not only our 22 seminarians from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and Haiti, and our lecturers who live and work here, but also worshippers of different backgrounds, many of whom embraced Orthodoxy in our community.”

As Fr. Alexander noted, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill stood behind the project of establishing St Genevieve Religious Education Centre. “It was you who eight years ago put forward to the Holy Synod the idea of creating this unique institution, so that graduates of theological schools might continue their higher education in the Paris universities while preparing for their church ministry,” Fr. Alexander added.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill addressed the students and the faculty of St Genevieve Centre, saying in particular:

“I am pleased to visit this place. Indeed, in my capacity as chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations I happened to take part in the establishment of this institution. I thought it beneficial and right to create a seminary, a centre for religious education in France to help those graduating from seminaries continue their education here, in France, using the scientific and educational possibilities offered by the Paris universities.

“This institution has everything that our youth might need to learn more about the achievements of Western theology and to establish relations with the Christian world around them, living at the same time in their habitual spiritual and prayerful milieu. I am very glad that this model presented at the time has received a very important spiritual and missionary dimension. I know that many people who had either become estranged from Christianity or never been Christians, found Christ thanks to the work you carry out.

“You all have a great responsibility – you represent the Russian Orthodox Church in France; you are the young generation of our Church. Looking at you, people will form their opinions as to what is going on in our countries and in our Church… We will pray together and work together to help you bear this responsibility in a worthy manner.”

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill presented an icon of St Sergius of Radonezh to the seminary’s church and a set of books to the library of St Genevieve Religious Education Centre.

DECR Communication Service

Photo by Patriarchal Press Service