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The Moscow patriarchate fears a schism of Orthodoxy throughout the world.
In Istanbul an agreement was signed for the creation of a joint commission on unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox church under the leadership of the self-proclaimed Kievan patriarchate (UPTs-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church (UAPTs). They will constitute the single Orthodox local church of Ukraine, independent of the Moscow patriarchate.
The sides agreed to refrain from any mutual accusations within the country and from practicing proselytism (converting believers from one confession to another). The Constantinople patriarchate and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew personally are ready to act as guarantors of the fulfillment of the agreement.
As announced on Ukrainian television by the head of UPTs-KP, Patriarch Filaret Denisenko of Kiev and all-Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew expressed support for the creation in Ukraine of an autocephalous Orthodox church since this "reflects historic traditions and current reality." According to Filaret, at the end of the unification process in Ukraine "there will be an independent Ukrainian church and there will be a church subordinate to Moscow."
The reaction of official authorities of Ukraine and the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox church which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow patriarchate (UPTs-MP) to the document signed is still unknown. However earlier it was reported that the Ukrainian deputy prime minister for humanitarian matters, Nikolai Zhulinsky, sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew and requested assistance in the unification of the Orthodox confessions and the creation of a Ukrainian autocephalous church.
The leadership of the Russian Orthodox church has expressed opposition to the immediate creation of Ukrainian autocephaly, since it had excommunicated Filaret Denisenko from the church. The head of UPTs-MP, Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan of Kiev and all-Ukraine, has refused to enter negotiations with him over unification. The secretary for inter-Orthodox relations and foreign institutions of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Archimandrite Elisy, commented on the situation in Ukraine: "If there is a desire that a single Orthodox church exist in Ukraine, then the path to unification must be based on a canonical foundation. The Ukrainian Orthodox church headed by Metropolitan Vladimir is canonical. But Patriarch Bartholomew has ignored the canonical church and has established contact with the uncanonical, schismatic structures. This speaks only of a desire to divide Orthodoxy in Ukraine."
Archimandrite Elisy expressed alarm with regard to the worsening relations with the Constantinople patriarchate. "Already now we are on the brink of a rupture with Constantinople. And such a rupture is undesirable inasmuch as it will lead to the division of Orthodoxy in all the world," he said.
Note: Today, according to official data, of 24,000 religious societies of Ukraine, 12,500 are Orthodos, 9,000 of which are under the jurisdiction of UPTs-MP, 3,000, UPTs-KP, and around 1,000, UAPTs. There exists a fourth wing, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church (UGKTs), the so-called Uniates, which are united in 3,500 societies. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2000)
UKRAINIAN ORTHODOXY BEGINS UNIFICATION PROCESS
by Evgenia Mussuri
Kyiv Post,
16 November 2000
After six years of wrangling, two branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church signed an agreement Nov. 8 to begin the process of unification.
Through the mediation of Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church agreed to create a joint commission to organize unification of the two churches.
Together the churches make up 31 percent of all parishes in Ukraine, leaving the major part, 69 percent, to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, which is not a part of the unification process.
The agreement calls for an end to the power struggle and bickering that has plagued the churches since 1992 when the Kyiv Patriarchate formed following Ukrainian independence. Both sides also agreed not to take any canonical actions, such as defrocking or ordaining, until the unification is completed.
The commission will address and consult with the Universal Patriarchy of Constantinople Patriarchate should any dispute arise during the process.
After the commission finishes preparing for unification, it will submit its conclusions to the Universal Patriarchy, which will then determine the hierarchy of the new United Orthodox Church and decide canonical issues.
"The long-awaited union of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and creation of the United Ukrainian Orthodox Church may become a reality before the end of the year," read a statement released by the press center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate.
Currently, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriachate is not recognized by any other Orthodox church, including the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Even if the two Ukrainian orthodoxies do unite, it is unclear whether the unified church would be recognized by other Orthodox churches besides the Universal Constantinople Patriarchy.
The unification process will not solve the long-running dispute involving a third church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, which claims to be the only official patriarchate in Ukraine.
Last month, the Moscow patriarchate sent a letter to Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew asking that it not intervene in the Ukrainian Orthodox split.
"The pulling of Your Sanctity into the Ukrainian conflict will not bring anything good," read the letter from the clergy council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. "It will not only aggravate the present split, but will lead to new splits."
"Any participation from your side in this conflict may cause a crisis and even split the Orthodox world. Obviously, the split may be solved only by efforts from inside," the appeal continued.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate sent their own letter to Constantinople, in which they asked Patriarch Bartholomew to assist them in the process of unification.
Both the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate delegations then went to the Universal Constantinople Patriarchy in Istanbul, where the agreement was signed.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate does not recognize the two other branches of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy. According to the decision of Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the leader of the Kyiv Patriarchate was anathematized in the early 1990s.
The Ukrainian Orthodox church-Kyiv Patriarchate was founded in 1992 by Filaret, who was the metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. Filaret was later chosen by his followers patriarch of Ukraine, a move that is impossible according to Orthodox rules, which spell out a specific procedure for the selection of a patriarch. Many considered this act an anathema.
"The only comment I can give in this respect is that lawlessness and illegality came together," said Bishop Paul of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. "It is Pontius Pilate and Kaiaffas united." (posted 17 November 2000)
KEEPING THE FAITH
By Frank Brown
Moscow Times, 4 November 2000
Dressed in a simple burgundy cassock, flashing the occasional gold-toothed smile and speaking in soothing tones, Patriarch Filaret seems far removed from the rough-and-tumble world where Orthodox Christianity and post-Soviet politics meet. But Filaret, formerly known as Denisenko, the 71-year-old head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kievan Patriarchate, is arguably Ukraine's most powerful religious leader, and certainly its most colorful.
After losing a bid in 1990 to Alexy II to become patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Filaret broke away to set up an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine, long the spiritual breadbasket of Russian Orthodoxy. Taking advantage of nationalist anti-Moscow sentiment in Ukraine, Filaret created what is now the country's second-largest Orthodox Church with about 3,000 parishes. The biggest is the Moscow-run Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, home to Filaret's former colleagues and current enemies.
The one thing Filaret's church lacks is recognition by the world's other Orthodox churches. Now, as President Leonid Kuchma pushes actively for a single, unified Orthodox church in Ukraine, this goal is growing more realistic. The Moscow church, however, is loath to grant independence to the over 9,000 churches under its control in Ukraine. Nor are the bishops in Moscow ever likely to recognize Filaret, who they first defrocked and then excommunicated.
During a recent interview in his Kiev office, Filaret spoke with The Moscow Times about efforts at unification and an attack last year on him by Orthodox believers.
Q: For simple believers, what difference does it make if the three Orthodox churches operating in Ukraine are unified or not?
A: It is important for believers. If they are living under a Ukrainian government, then shouldn't they also be living under a Ukrainian church? They want to be members of a Ukrainian church. The current members of the Moscow church are being tricked. They think they are members of a Ukrainian church - named the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - but they are, in fact, members of the Moscow Patriarchate's church.
Q: If I were a member of your noncanonical church that is split off from the rest of Orthodoxy, would I be able to achieve salvation?
A: There is no problem. It doesn't matter. Our faith is one and the same, that of the Moscow Patriarchate and of the Kiev Patriarchate. From the point of view of Orthodox ecclesiology, we are a church, but a church that is not recognized as self-ruling by other Orthodox churches. But this is not dangerous for believers in any way. The Holy Spirit is at work in both churches.
Q: Would you step down in order to clear the way for the unification of Ukraine's Orthodox churches?
A: Under the present circumstances I would not. Why? Because there is no leader - not in the Kiev Patriarchate, not in the Autocephalous [self-ruling] Church and not in the Moscow church. Without a leader, the Ukrainian church cannot unite internally. It might unite for a while, but then it would fall apart again. There must be a leader who can accomplish that unification from within. I would agree to step down if I were to see a successor who could accomplish this. Today, I don't see one.
Q: Last year, you were attacked in [the eastern Ukrainian city of] Mariupol when you came to bless the ground-breaking of a new church. Would you describe what happened?
A: The local Moscow Patriarchate priest there organized protesters, bused them in. So, when we arrived, the crowd surrounded us and they started to beat us, including me. They beat us. They beat us with sticks, with metal pipes, with bricks, with everything. Of course, I had security with me. If I hadn't had security, they might have seriously injured me, even killed me. My secretary, Dmitry, was the most seriously beaten. He collapsed in the car unconscious.
Q: Newspapers in both Kiev and Moscow have published accounts of a long-term romantic relationship between you and the late Yevgenia Rodionova, by whom, they write, you fathered three children, Vera, Andrei and Lyubov. Is this true?
A: None of it is true. First of all, Yevgenia Petrovna died three years ago. Secondly, she is my adopted sister. Those children are her adopted children. She took them from an orphanage and raised them. This was all thought up at the time of the split between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. Until that time, everyone knew about this but no one said anything. When I was a candidate for patriarch, no one said anything. No one said I was unworthy.
Q: You have also been accused of working closely with the KGB in Soviet times. Is this true?
A: This is ancient history. In the Soviet Union, everyone was under the control of the special services - especially the church. Why? The church was the only ideological force opposed to Marxism. Not one bishop could become bishop without their approval. That's why every bishop had contacts with these organs. I think that most of the time this had to do with getting approval for decisions. The bishop couldn't hire or fire a priest without getting this approval. That's why the bishop was required to have such contacts - just so the church could exist. Of course, as an exarch, there is no way I could have avoided having such contacts. Naturally, I had contacts with them - just as Patriarch [Alexy II] did. I don't see anything immoral in this. It is immoral when a bishop goes against his conscience, like when he informs on a brother. Among bishops there were those who informed on their brothers, who gathered compromising material against them. But when a bishop or a priest is simply working for the good of the church in difficult circumstances, this is normal.
Q: Father Gleb Yakunin [the dissident Orthodox priest imprisoned for his attempts at church reform in Soviet times], who is a member of your church, I believe, told me recently that the greatest problem facing Orthodoxy is the refusal of bishops and priests to repent for their behavior in Soviet times. Do you agree?
A: Those who violated their consciences must repent, yes. But if a priest or bishop working in those conditions was simply fulfilling his mission in the church, then he has nothing to repent. For example, what am I going to repent for? In conditions where it was forbidden to be a priest, in opposition to the entire system, I studied and became a priest. What? I'm going to repent for that? Right? Right. I went on to become a rector and then a bishop and I also acted for the good of the church. Am I going to repent for that? No. I'm not going to repent because I know I did nothing to hurt the church, to hurt Christianity.
Q: From the point of view of Father Gleb, it would have been better to have worked underground, like the Catacomb Church did, rather than to have cooperated with the Communist authorities.
A: Sure, the Catacomb Church existed, but what remains of it today? Nothing.
Q: In South Africa they have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to determine who did what under apartheid. Would it make sense to have such a commission in former Soviet countries, to start to come to terms with what happened, with who informed on whom?
A: Well, that's fine. But the conditions for that don't exist. How would it be determined who is an informer and who isn't an informer?
Q: Archives?
A: They are not opening the archives. And, if they are not opening the archives, then how are you going to say who was an informer and who wasn't? You are only left with accusations based on rumor. Therefore, without the opening of the archives, it is not practically possible. (posted 1 January 2001)
Religious figures join the struggle again.
The administration of President Putin has again shown itself incapable of thinking up anything new in its methods of operations: peacemakers in cassocks are again called to a special effort in the "struggle for peace in all the world." Their "Interreligious Peacemaking Forum" has concluded in Moscow. Formally its organizers were the Interreligious Council of Russia and the Ministry of Affairs of the Federation and National and Migration Policy, although the real organizer was the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox church (RPTs).
Patriarch Alexis II and his assistant for international work, Metropolitan Kirill, addressed the forum with reports. The correct words resounded, copied verbatim from speeches of the Brezhnev era: "The dialogue of the traditional religious in our countries not only has not ceased but it has found new forms. . . . I believe that we can help to overcome hostility and attitudes and to bring harmony to the life . . . of all humanity. . . . Overcoming world hostility and repulsing interreligious conflicts can be achieved primarily by means of dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation. . . ." And so on and so forth.
The traditions of such clerical meetings within the bounds of the struggle for peace in all the world are of long standing: the peacemaking conferences, as the only permitted form of social action of churchmen, were thought up in the bowels of the stalinist state apparatus. They acquired a section on "Struggle for peace" back in 1944 in the official publication "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate," and the communists often dispatched some law-abiding hierarchs to peacemaking conferences abroad, to which they went with alacrity. Thus both RPTs and other soviet confessions conscientiously served the foreign policy interests of both the stalinist, and Khrushchev, and Brezhnev regimes: for some this was their only "window onto Europe" from behind the "Iron Curtain," and for others it was evidence of the "observance" of human rights.
The last grand peacemaking gathering was conducted in Moscow during the last gasps of the period of stagnation, in 1985, coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of Vistory. At that time the famous Baptist preacher Billy Graham came to Russia for the first time, whom official Orthodox propaganda then accused untiringly for fifteen years of "proselytism," that is, converting Orthodox souls to protestantism.
In the years of perestroika the Russian government refrained from pressure on the churches and their peacemaking activity faded away by itself. However now Putin's hawks want support on the ideological front so they have revived the old form of "work with believers."
However there also are substantial innovations: whereas the earlier forums were conducted on neutral territory (for example, at the Center of International Trade), now it is at the administrative court of one of the confessions, the "St. Daniel's" hotel complex belonging to RPTs. Previously the Council on Religious Affairs of the USSR Council of Ministers provided the basic organizational resources. Now everything is done by the state church. The organizers claim that the total number of forum participants exceeded 300, although the invitation to fight for peace was received by only the spiritual leaders of the traditional religions, "Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism." Many representatives of protestant churches either were not invited or did not show up themselves: to fight for anything whatever (even for peace in all the world) under the aegis of the "only true" confession is not to their liking. They have already gotten beyond that. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2000)
"Nest of spies" finally discovered in Volgograd.
It all began in October 1998 when the Russian Association of Churches of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (as the Mormons call themselves) bought for their recently formed Volgograd congregation a small two story building in the Voroshilov district of the city. It was bought for $200,000, an unthinkable price for such a dilapidated house. The deal was closed in conformity with all necessary formalities.
After agreement on a contract, reconstruction of the building into a house of prayer was begun by a Turkish construction company which hired 70 local workers. The work went quickly and should have been completed by 1 September of this year had it not been for the beginning of elections. It seemed to somebody that a Mormon prayer house in the center of Volgograd was a convenient target for exercises in inciting the patriotic spirit of the voters.
The protest action was headed by the Volgograd Russian National Assembly with the active support of the diocese of the Orthodox church. A campaign began in the press. The construction of the Mormons' meeting house was called none other than an "undermining of Russian statehood and of the spiritual and moral health of citizens," and the congregation itself was called a "nest of widespread espionage and financial machinations." Unable to withstand that attack of the "patriotic public" the mayor's office caved in and, canceling its own permits, put an end to the construction. For three months there has been no work on the building.
Nevertheless the contracting company appealed to arbitrage court, which in the course of a fifteen minute hearing of the case overruled the illegal decree of the mayor's office. In June the work resumed.
I met with a representative of the religious organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My first surprise: the leader of the Volgograd Mormons turned out to be not an American but a Russian, a 43-year-old native of Volgograd, Peter Kolpakov.
"This is a widespread misunderstanding," he affirmed. "Many consider that in our country everything is being directed by Americans. Meanwhile our congregation now has approximately 400 members, all Russian citizens. When people go out onto the streets with demands 'to uproot all Mormons,' they sincerely think that they are dealing with foreigners. But we are Russians. There are Mormon preachers in Volgograd who are Americans but their function is purely evangelistic."
Six years ago Kolpakov met one of these evangelists face-to-face on the street.
"Did you belong to the Orthodox church at that time?" I asked.
"No, I was not even a Christian in the full sense of the word, that is, I did not attend church and was not interested in religion. I was just like the majority of the other members of our congregation. So that nobody won anyone over; everybody can be considered a new convert. The congregation has already had to change its meeting place nine times. Under various pretexts they try to escape from the dangerous renters."
"That goes all the way to direct provocations," Kolpakov says. "On 20 August a group of warriors from the Russian National Assembly (as far as we can tell) broke into the room in the Gagarin House of Culture where our Sunday meeting was being held. They forced all the men to the wall and demanded that they immediately leave the premises. Those who tried to object were beaten.
"We filed a statement with the Krasnooktiabrskoe Department of Internal Affairs. But it has already been a month since that happened and still a criminal case has not been opened, although we know the names of the perpetrators of the crime."
There also were cases of attack upon American missionaries. Two of them were beaten in the street by people in cossack uniforms. It is not surprising that the builders who were doing the work on the future prayer house were pretty much under siege.
Even in the company of Kolpakov the work superintendent let me in the gate only after he ran off to get permission from his supervisor. "At this point one can expect anything," he explained after a thousand apologies.
I became convinced of the truth of his words on the evening of the same day. The night previously announcements had been posted around the city with a call to gather for a prayer service against the construction of the Mormons' building on sacred Volgograd land.
"Let's all go out to fight with sectarians! They are Russia's enemies! Expel the sectarians!" the appeal said.
The event, whose organizer was formally designated the Orthodox monastery of the Holy Spirit, was officially permitted by the mayor's office. By seven o'clock in the evening people had begun gathering in the square in front of the popular youth night club "Molotov Garage." About 100-150 persons came. The procession, led by priests and guarded by armed youth from the Russian National Assembly, marched to the site of the ill-fated construction with religious streamers and singing.
At that place the prayer activities continued. But here something happened that surprised the officials from the mayor's office and police who were there: a dumptruck rolled up to the fence of the construction site and emptied onto the ground a half load of mixed cement. Warriors in black jackets went to work. From somewhere the cement was smoothed out with spades, making it something like a grave slab and then an Orthodox cross was erected on it. Alongside a tent was constructed out of metal pipes. It was explained to those who inquired that from now on, day and night, novices from the monastery would be here and would read the psalter.
The next day I called an assistant to the procurator of the city, Inna Kunitsyna, who also was an eyewitness of what happened.
"We will make a request of the district architect whether city construction rules were violated in this case," she reported.
If an assessment of such a clear and blatant provocation falls on the shoulders of the district architect, there can be no doubt that the rage of the local ultranationalists will not be quickly averted.
Now, when the gubernatorial election campaign is building up in the district, this "Black Hundred" feels especially free. Many potential candidates who have a chance of election will base their campaign on the incitement of anticaucasian hysteria, hatred for the heterodox, and a struggle with the "world conspiracy against Russia."
More than a month has passed but no official has dared to order the removal of the cross from the construction site. None of the organizers of the provocation has been punished. Moreover, the campaign of badgering and intimidating citizens who were exercising their right to freedom of religious confession in full conformity with Russian laws continues.
"Now they are privately inviting us to come to the mayor's office to talk and they are trying to convince us to abandon this building and find some other place for ourselves farther from the center," Kolpakov explains. "But we have not agreed to this. First, we have already put substantial amounts into its reconstruction and no one will reimburse us. Second, and this is most important, leaving would mean giving in to the provocateurs." (tr. by PDS, posted 16 November 2000)
On 14 [November] the results of the two-day work of the International Peacemaking Forum were presented. At a press conference held at the conclusion of the forum in the conference room of the "St. Daniel's" hotel, reporters were addressed by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the chairman of the Central Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Russia, Mufti Talgat Taljiddin, the chairman of the Buddhist Traditional Snagkha of Russia, Bandito Khambo Lama Damba Aiusheev, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, and the president of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations of Russia, Adolph Shaevich.
The results of the work included a Concluding Document and Declaration of the participants of the Interreligious Peacemaking Forum. In them were expressed the main theses of the reports that were presented. The leaders of the traditional religions consider the main problems of the contemporary world that hinder the peaceful coexistence of nations to be "relentless secularization that causes people to exclude the religious motivation from socially significant relations and actions," the role of the mass media in inciting conflicts and intensifying hostility, as well as extremism and terrorism justified by religious rhetoric. The concluding document also says that "economic and political processes are characterized by the trend toward internationalization and globalization, which requires a new conceptualization of the role of ethnic identify and religion in the life of the ecumenical family." Special attention was given to conceptualizing church-state relations, although the question whether there were any changes in these relations in connection with the change in the highest authority was answered by Metropolitan Kirill: "Everything that President Putin has been doing does not bear a revolutionary character and this is what is attractive about his policies. Of course, this is a new politics, but it is a creative development of all that had gone before." (tr. by PDS, posted 15 November 2000)
CONCLUDING DOCUMENT
Interreligious Peacemaking Forum
Moscow, 13-14 November 2000
from Communications
Service of OVTsS, Moscow patriarchate, 14 November 2000
Religious leaders, public figures, and scholars from Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States send to all people and nations a call to take the paths of peace.
Contemporary social reality has become ever more complex. The moral crisis and the growth of criminality, hostility, violence, and vice pose challenges to traditional spiritual and moral values. The insistent secularization that causes people to exclude religious motivation from socially significant relations and actions stands in clear contradiction to the aspiration of believers to construct an earthly existence in accordance with a higher truth. Economic and political processes are characterized by a trend toward internationalization and globalization which requires a new conceptualization of the role of ethnic identity and religion in the life of the ecumenical family.
Overcoming hostility in the world and rejecting interreligious conflicts can be achieved primarily by means of dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation in deeds that are beneficial to the individual, society, and state. We testify that followers of the traditional religions in our country are fully determined to support fellowship and mutual activity. We are moved to this by the tradition of a centuries-long peaceful coexistence of the adherents of Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism in the territory where we now live. We also have had good experience of cooperation in the twentieth century, which includes relations with other Christian confessions.
We are convinced that peace cannot be achieved without genuine moral transformation and renewal of society. Harmony among people of various nations and faiths will become firm only when among our fellow countrymen faithfulness to the time-honored standards of morality that have been given from above, upon which any human activity should be based, prevails. People are not made happy by economic prosperity nor restrictive measures, nor the calls of radicals, nor the cult of consumerism and satisfaction. Only a regeneration of the moral foundation in the soul of the individual and the life of society will help to overcome divisions, disorders, hostility, and hate.
Recognizing the growing danger of conflict between a secular world view and adherence to an integrated religious manner of life, we call for the application of all possible efforts for the harmonization of the existing legal systems and the religious and moral traditions of various peoples. To achieve this it is necessary to develop a broad dialogue of legislative and executive authorities, religious leaders, scholars, and representatives of various social forces.
We are seriously disturbed by acts of vandalism to sacred places, manifestations of xenophobia and sacrilege, propaganda, prejudicial attitudes toward religion, and public actions that offend the feelings of believers. Such actions not only diminish the worth of citizens but also fan the flames of interreligious hostility, bring schism into society, and lead to the destabilization of conditions, which is especially dangerous in regions of conflict. We support freedom of speech and the press and reject censorship, which, however, does not excuse from responsibility people who blaspheme against what is sacred from millions of our fellow countrymen. Recalling this, the participants of the forum call upon organs of state power with a request to strengthen measures against vandalism and sacrilege so as to protect the legal rights of believing citizens. We also call upon journalists and public figures to recognize fully the significance of every spoken word, which can often intensify hostility, but at the same time can bring truth and reconciliation.
Without surrendering our right and obligation to make moral judgments about the actions of the authorities, religious leaders welcome the development of joint actions of their communities with the state in many different spheres. One of the continuing areas of such joint action has been peacemaking both within each country and on a European, Asian, and world scale. We fully support efforts of the state to establish tolerance, to promote interreligious, interethnic, and cross-cultural dialogue, and to oppose extremism and terrorism. We decisively condemn forcible conversion of anybody to another faith.
Today believers cannot shut themselves up within the confines of a single country. In conditions of globalization we need to have an effect upon public opinion and promote the adoption of weighty decisions that determine the fate of humanity. Therefore we consider extremely important cooperation in the integrative processes within the borders of CIS and the development of our dialogue with European and global intergovernmental structures. We are open to the strengthening of mutual ties and cooperation with international interreligious organizations.
We express our hope that religious communities, the state, and the structures of civil society will manage by their joint efforts to direct the nations onto the path of harmony, mercy, and justice. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 November 2000)
DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS OF INTERRELIGIOUS PEACEMAKING FORUM
We, participants of the Interreligious Peacemaking Forum, spiritual leaders of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism, are profoundly disturbed by the manifestations of extremism and terrorism which some often try to justify by religious rhetoric.
In the expanse of Eurasia adherents of the traditional religious have lived in peace and cooperation for centuries. However the end of the twentieth century was marked by events that evoke sharp pain in the hearts of believers, regardless of their particular faith. The history of our countries in the past decade was marked by a multitude of bloody national and civil conflicts, unprecedented intensification of ethnic, political and social hostility, xenophobia, and alienation. We are especially alarmed by attempts to misuse the feelings of believers for achieving political and even criminal ends and for the expansion of disputes and conflicts. After all, it is impossible to overcome injustice by anarchy and to quench internecine war by still greater hostility.
Without doubt believers have the right to conduct their own lives in accordance with their own faith. Government, society, and the mass media should respect the feelings and way of life of adherents of the traditional religions of both the majority of the population and the minorities. But it should not be permitted for anybody, taking cover under words of faith, to take the lives of other people or to infringe upon their rights and liberties. We testify with conviction: not one traditional religion teaches this. On the contrary, actions that we have witnessed in the recent past of kidnapping and ethnic cleansing, theft of homes and property, and attempts to convert people to another faith forcibly are sinful.
In the northern Caucasus and in the central Asian region there has arisen the real danger of forcing upon nations choices that are not characteristic for them. Immediately across the southern borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States legality has been weakened and drug trafficking has flourished along with the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons and other forms of criminality. This is an indisputable and tragic fact of international life, recognized by the world community and expressed in decisions of the United Nations.
Unfortunately, these phenomena have reached onto the territory of the countries of CIS, not without evil intent. Representatives of militant movements from various states have penetrated here, who are using the symbols of Islam for their own self-interests and trying to change radically the historic path of the nations of the countries of the commonwealth that has become for them the way of life. All of this has been accompanied by the creation of illegal armed formations, crude interference from abroad in the affairs of sovereign states, and the creation of new centers of tension which are more frequently leading to mass destruction of innocent people. The territory being hurt by this disease is expanding relentlessly. Terrorism has taken on an international character and thus its centers are threatening the stability of the whole world.
We honestly confess that in the historic religious traditions there has been present a justification of the use of force for instituting and establishing faith. However today, in conditions of the fragility of peaceful human coexistence, we call believers to renew the peacemaking potential of religious ideals and values. Let wise moderation, peacemaking tolerance, and fraternal love help us to avoid this dangerous trait. We declare that terrorism and unjust force, by whatever means they may be justified, should be unconditionally and consistently eliminated. The world community should repulse these criminal manifestations most decisively. Religious extremism must be counteracted by education, dialogue, and support of the creative efforts of believers.
At the end of the twentieth century it depends to a great extent on the efforts of believers whether the new millennium will be free from injustice and want, hatred and hostility, moral decline and fratricidal conflicts. We are fervently pray and work tirelessly for the sake of reinforcing peace and harmony in our countries.
Bandito Khambo Lama, chairman of the Buddhist Traditional Sangkha of Russia, D. Baiusheev
Chairman of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of European Russia, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Mufti R. Gainutdin
Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox church, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad
Chancellor of the Apostolic Administration for Catholics of the Latin Rite of Northern European Russia, Fr I. Kovalevsky
President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Senior Pastor P.B. Konovalchik
Chief rabbi of Russia, P.B. Lazar
Head of the representation of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Russia in Moscow, V.S. Pudov
Chairman (Supreme mufti Sheik-ul-Islam) of the Central Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Russia, T. Tajuddin
Chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia, A.S. Shaevich
11 November 2000
(tr. by PDS, posted 15 November 2000)
RUSSIAN INTERCONFESSIONAL SUMMIT DENOUNCES EXTREMISM
Agence France Presse, 14 November 2000
Leading figures in Russia's Orthodox Church, Islamic, Jewish and Buddhist communities, who have been meeting here for an interconfessional summit, on Tuesday denounced what they said was a growth in religious intolerance and extremism.
"Believers have a right to make their lives conform with their beliefs. But no one has a right to use their beliefs to take the lives or violate the rights of others," the leaders said in a statement.
"No religion allows for that."
The gathering included Orthodox patriarch Alexis II, the Russia's Mufti Ravil Gainutdinov, ultra-Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Berl Lazar and Buddhist leader Damba Ayucheyev.
"To uproot, exile and deprive people of the homes and their possessions or even impose a a religion on people is a sin," the statement said.
However it called for "terrorism and unjust violence" to be "battled in a determined way, notably in Russia's Caucasus region and Central Asia.
Russia has been battling what it describes as a "terrorist" insurgency in Chechnya, led by mostly-Muslim separatist rebels.
In Central Asia the secular-dominated states have been battling Islamist incursions, but both operations have raised concerns among human rights groups over the tactics used.
Russia's traditional religions are Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, according to a 1997 law. The law forbids proselytism by religious groups considered newcomers to the country, including Catholics and Protestants. (posted 15 November 2000)
RUSSIAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS DENOUNCE TERRORISM
Interfax New Agency, 14 November 2000
Russia's leading religious figures have called on the state authorities to step up the countering of vandalism and blasphemy "in order to protect the legitimate rights of believer citizens."
"We also call on journalists and statesmen to be aware of the importance of every word they pronounce that can multiply enmity or bring about truth and peace," says the final document of the Inter-Religious Peacemaking Forum that ended in Moscow on Tuesday. Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II, members of the Holy Synod, Supreme Mufti of Russia Talgat Tadzhutdin, head of the Council of Muftis Ravil Gainutdin, Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Shayevich, head of Russia's Buddhists Damba Ayusheyev and other religious figures attended the forum.
The religious leaders expressed deep concern over "manifestations of extremism and terrorism that are frequently wrapped in religious rhetoric." "Believers certainly have a right to build their life in line with their faith. But nobody must be allowed to use the guise of words[about their faith] to take other people's lives or tramp on rights and freedoms. No traditional religion professes this. Actions such as abductions and exiling, depriving people of their homes and property and attempts to enforce another religion on people are sinful," the document says.
The authors of the document note that there is a threat of imposing a choice on the peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia that they do not want and said that "terrorism and unjust violence, whatever guise they take, must be tenaciously uprooted."
"The world community must rebuff these criminal activities in a most decisive way. Enlightenment, dialogue and support of constructive efforts on the part of believers must counter religious extremism," the document says. (posted 15 November 2000)
SACRILIGEOUS ADVERTISEMENT TO APPEAR ON MOSCOW STREETS
Kommersant-vlast/Sobornost,
14 November 2000
Well-established organizations in the person of the British Council, Goethe Institute, and IMA-press have decided to conduct an action in Moscow under the slogan "They are we; we are they," which is intended to promote love and friendship among nations. To this end, twenty artists were commissioned to produce posters that proclaim the ideal of political correctness. As a result, in the near future on the streets of the capital will appear a poster with the painting by Andrei Logvin in which Christ, Buddha, and Muhammad are getting drunk at one table and eating herring and salted cucumbers. In the opinion of the organizers of the campaign, this illustration should "reconcile those who profess different religions." One can only guess whether the campaign was timed to coincide with the Interreligious Peacemaking Forum that is going on these days in Moscow, whose participants we asked to comment briefly on the poster. Here are some of the opinions expresssed.
Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin: "This is a frightening poster. As a religious leader of Muslims, I cannot support this poster, no matter what it symbolizes."
Alexander Prilutsky, pastor of the Lutheran Evangelical church of Ingria: "Judging by this picture, Christians, like representatives of other confessions, cannot approve of the poster. Upon the appearance of this poster on the streets, it will not promote respect for one another nor for other religions."
Valery Frastan, assistant to the supreme mufti of Russia: "I think that not only representatives of various confessions but also the most diverse kinds of people, regardless of the degree of their religiousness, will find this unpleasant because there is a limit to everything. In this case what is represented in this picture--a drunken company of Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad--at the least is not tactful with regard to Muslims, because they prohibit drinking. I think that this is not a very successful joke."
At the present it remains unclear whether any official reaction of the leaders of the traditional religions to this project will be forthcoming. But today there will be a press conference of forum participants and our correspondents will raise this question. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 November 2000)
At the time of a regular lecture being conducted in the headquarters of the Hubbardists in the center of Barnaul, two unidentified persons, armed with a gas pistol and gas canister, broke into the premises. One of them aimed the pistol at the speaker and the other released tear gas in the room. After this the first one fired his pistol into the center's signs. Without meeting resistance, the attackers disappeared.
At the time of the attack the criminals shouted slogans of an ultra-patriotic and antisectarian nature, saying that the responsibility for the attack would be assumed by the "Black Hundred" movement of which they were members. In commenting on the attack incident, one of the leaders of "Black Hundred" in Altai, a former press secretary of the Barnaul and Altai diocese of the Russian Orthodox church, Viktor Zubenko, declared that no formal decisions concerning actions against Hubbardists had been made by the Black Hundreds. At the same time members of the movement, which operates in the status of an unregistered public organization, are in moral solidarity with everyone who carries on the struggle with the foreign sectarian ideology.
The leadership of the "Dianetics" center submitted a report of the results of the attack to the procuracy. A criminal case has been opened regarding the attack and an investigation is being conducted. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2000)
A representative of the Vatican reported that Roman Pope John Paul II intends to make an official visit to Ukraine in June. For many in Rome this news came as a surprise inasmuch as recently persistent rumors about the possible retirement of the aged pontiff have been circulating. And suddenly instead of retirement is a regular foreign trip.
Kiev thus becomes in the itinerary of papal visits the third capital of a state where a majority of the population profess Orthodoxy, after Romania and Georgia. However, as Italian newspapers are noting in commenting on the pope's surprising decision, his main goal continues to be the "citadel of Orthodoxy," Russia.
Meanwhile the Russian Orthodox church still is rather cool to the possibility of such a visit. Not even the president of Russia himself, Vladimir Putin, could agree on a papal visit to Moscow at the time of his trip to Rome where he visited the Vatican, too. Everybody expected that the Russian guest would announce this after meeting with the pope, but Putin kept quiet.
Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus gave an interview in August of this year with an Italian newspaper in which he noted that such a trip was prevented by problems associated with the "persecution" of Orthodox by Catholics in western Ukraine. In his words, the pope cannot be received in Moscow until this "wound" is healed. As regards Ukrainian authorities, they have wished for a long time for a visit by the pope to Kiev to become a reality, figuring that this would help them strengthen ties with the West and receive more generous aid.
Whether such a papal visit will facilitate reconciliation of Orthodox and Catholics and whether Kiev can become a real "bridge" for a future trip of John Paul II to Moscow the future will show. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2000)
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II expressed confidence on Monday that unity among spiritual leaders could stop any enmity. The head of Russia's Orthodox Church was opening the Inter-Religion Peace Forum at Moscow's Saint Daniil Monastery.
The forum brings together spiritual leaders of different confessions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, as well as ambassadors of foreign states and representatives from international organisations. Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Iliya II is among honoured guests.
Russia's patriarch said there had never been religious wars in Russia, and that those professing traditional religions had always tried to live according to historic traditions, working in harmony for the benefit of the Fatherland and its peoples.
He sounded a cautious note, saying "different destructive forces" in former Soviet republics "are trying to set people of different nationalities and confessions against each other."
He said terrorism and extremism, which some are trying to excuse with religious rhetoric, were a real threat to peace.
Alexy II said that "if we say a clear 'no' to violence, hatred and fanaticism, it will be a substantial contribution to peace in the countries of the Commonwealth (of Independent States)."
The patriarch mentioned moral crisis as another major problem. He said "a boundless vice of disgrace, moral nihilism has an adverse effect on situations in states and their peoples."
He urged the forum "to unite efforts for the sake of establishing God-given ethical values."
Not only traditional religions, but also state authorities, schools, science and the mass media should take care of society's moral health for the sake of civil peace and accord, he said. (posted 14 November 2000)
INTERNATIONAL INTERRELIGIOUS FORUM OPENS IN MOSCOW
from Communications
Service, OVTsS, 13 November 2000
On 13 November in Moscow in the "St. Daniel's" hotel complex an international peacemaking forum opened, which had been organized by the Interreligious Council of Russia and the Russian federation Ministry on Affairs of the Federation and National and Migration Policies.
Participants in the work of the forum include spiritual leaders of the traditional religions--Orthodoxy Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism--from Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States: His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, His Holiness and Blessedness Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II of all-Georgia, the chairman of the Central Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Russia and European countries of CIS, Supreme Mufti Sheikh-ul-Islam Talgat Tadzhuddin, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, Russian Chief Rabbi A.S. Shaevich (Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia), Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar (Federation of Jewish Organizations and Congregations of Russia), head of the Buddhist Traditional Sangkha of Russia, Bandito Khambo Lama Damba Aiusheev, chairman of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Kazakhstan Mufti Absattar Derbisaliev, the general secretary of the World Conference on "Religion and Peace," William Bendley, the coordinator of the Dialogue of World Religions on Issues of Development, Wendy Tyndale, the general secretary of the International Council of Christians and Jews, Pastor Friedhelm Piper, and representatives of international interreligious organizations, secular experts in various scholarly disciplines, employees of state institutions of Russia, and diplomatic representatives of the countries of CIS.
His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II delivered the opening address of the forum. Russian Federation President V.V. Putin sent greetings to the forum's participants. The chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, delivered a report, "Resolution of interethnic and interreligious problems by means of the harmonization of the secular liberal and traditional religious approaches." Greetings also arrived from the government of Russia, the chairman of the Russian State Duma , G.N. Seleznev, Moscow Mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov, chairman of the Supreme Religious Council of the Peoples of the Caucasus, the spiritual head of Muslims of Azerbaijan, Sheik-ul-Islam Allakhshukiur Pasha-zade, and the chairman of the Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Study and Dialogue, Metropolitan Damaskin of Switzerland.
The program of the first day of the meeting included plenary sessions while for the second day work in three sections is planned: "Overcoming and prevention international and interreligious conflict," "Religion, state, and society on the national level," and "Interrelations with international interreligious organizations." The forum will conclude with a short plenary session at which concluding documents will be adopted. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2000)
INTERRELIGIOUS CONFERENCE OPENS
by Oksana Alekseeva
Kommersant-Daily, 14 November 2000
Yesterday a two-day international peacemaking forum of the traditional religions of Russia and CIS opened in Moscow in the St. Daniel's monastery. It was attended by Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, the chief mufti of Russia and European CIS states, Talgat Tajutdin, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia and of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the European part of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, Russia's chief rabbi according to KEROR, Adolph Shaevich, Russia's chief rabbi according to FEOR, Berl Lazar, and the head of Russian Buddhists, Damba Aiusheev.
Participants of the forum were given the greetings of Vladimir Putin in which the president noted that the main goal of the forum is "joint actions in the development of positive cooperation among religious associations, public organizations, and the state."
In his address Patriarch Alexis II expressed profound concern over the growth of terrorism and extremism in our country. The patriarch reminded the audience that in Russia there never were religious wars and representatives of different religious always managed to live in accordance with native traditions, working together harmoniously for the good of the fatherland and the nations. "However now," he noted with alarm, "throughout the extent of the former USSR various destructive forces are trying to create conflict among people of various nationalities and confessions." The head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, expressed serious alarm with regard to the way recently the "number of public actions connected with offense to the feelings of believers, including some even in the central mass media" has increased. As an example Mufti Gainutdin identified the showing on the NTV television channel of the film "The Last Temptation of Christ," despite frequent protests of religious leaders as well as cases of the desecration of Jewish graves and insulting statements directed at Muslims. Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, addressing the forum, called for a joint quest for mutual understanding and accord on all matters facing believers of Russia and the CIS countries. "The whole world, and especially the Near East, should pay attention to the example of mutual action and understanding among representatives of all religions in Russia," Berl Lazar said. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2000)
INTERRELIGION FORUM DISCUSSES NORTH CAUCASUS
by Olga Kostromina
ITAR-TASS News Agency, 13 November 2000
The Inter-Religion Peace Forum, which opened in Moscow on Monday, has discussed the North Caucasus.
Catholicos-Patriarch Iliya II of All Georgia expressed confidence that if there had been no separatist outbreak in Georgia, and in particular in Abkhazia, Russia would have no problems in the North Caucasus.
Iliya II believes that was a chain reaction. "The Caucasus can not live between war and peace, it is necessary to liquidate that hotbed of war," he said.
"Despite numerous attempts to portray the conflict in Chechnya as an opposition of Christians and Moslems, most Russians know that those are all attempts from abroad," supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin said.
"Respect for national and religious originality of each Russian citizen is the best response to such plans," which he believes are doomed to fail.
Acting in the name of religion, foreign extremists are trying to excuse their action referring to holy texts, Russia's chief Rabbi Adolph Shayevich continued, adding that alienates people.
He deplored that Russia had no national idea and stressed that "statements stirring up national dissension should get a rebuff from the state and the society."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Avdeyev came out with an offer to use a rich experience of resolving conflicts between nations with the help of religion instead of through wars.
He gave as an example trips by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II to former Soviet republics, which have contributed to strengthening relations between nations as well as states. (posted 15 November 200)
An amendment signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens the "liquidation" of thousands of religious groups at the end of this year. When President Clinton meets with Putin during the Asia-Pacific economic summit, this issue should be near the top of their bilateral agenda.
In the last days of the Soviet Union, the government enacted the most enlightened law on religion in the history of Russia, providing broad legal protections for the right to exercise religious freedom and for the equality of religious communities. The law restored rights not only to the Russian Orthodox Church but also to Old Believers, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventists, Muslims, Buddhists and a host of other faith groups that had suffered severe repression since at least 1929.
In the new atmosphere of freedom, thousands of new churches and religious groups were formed, feeding a post-Communist spiritual hunger that pervaded all regions and ethnic groups. Indigenous pastors and clerics headed many existing religious groups, while in others the leaderships had been decimated by decades of communist mistreatment and needed foreign clergy and teachers to help them reestablish themselves. In yet other cases, foreign missionaries, including Western evangelicals and followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded new faith communities--legally, and with Moscow's full knowledge.
These days of openness quickly passed, however. The Russian Orthodox Church--nostalgic for the leading position it had held in Russian society before the Bolsheviks--soon pushed for a law to restrict, if not ban, the activities of foreign religious workers and of non-orthodox Christians (as well as dissident Orthodox groups). While President Boris Yeltsin vetoed one egregious bill the Russian parliament sent him, he allowed another version to become law in 1997.
The 1997 Religion Law discriminates among religions and violates Russia's international commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It restricts the rights, powers and privileges of smaller, or newer, or foreign religious communities, while giving special status to Russia's "traditional" religions--primarily Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. It also creates an onerous and intrusive registration process.
Upon taking office this spring, Putin quietly signed a significant and double-edged amendment to the 1997 law. On the positive side, he extended to Dec. 31 of this year the deadline by which religious groups must register with officials. On the negative side, however, he required that unregistered groups be "liquidated" after that date.
If a system of due process were in place for religious groups to register, the situation would not be so dangerous. But quite the reverse is true: Local officials in some regions have delayed or denied registration to and sought liquidation of unpopular religious groups, even when they have been recognized and registered in other regions or at the federal level. Sometimes this delay or refusal occurs at the instigation of the local Russian Orthodox bishop or priest.
The threat of liquidation when the Dec. 31 deadline expires is substantial. At the end of September, according to the Russian Justice Ministry, only some 9,000 of the 17,000 religious groups in Russia had obtained registration. Given the slow pace of the registration process so far, it is hard to believe most of the remaining groups will be able to register by Dec. 31. Putin must intervene--both to speed up the process and to postpone the deadline.
Clinton will meet with the Russian president tomorrow or Thursday on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Brunei. He should stress to Putin how seriously the United States takes the issue of religious freedom and how important it is, both for Russia's future and for U.S.-Russian relations, that he postpone the Dec. 31 deadline and streamline the registration process. It is hard to see a warming trend in U.S.-Russian relations if the holiday season headlines are full of stories about houses of worship about to be shut down or declared illegal, their property seized and their congregations out in the cold legally--and physically as well.
The writer is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to give independent recommendations to the executive branch and the Congress.
c. The Washington Post (posted 14 November 2000)
Blagovest-info/Sobornost, 10 November 2000
A round table "Religious choice of the population of Ukraine according to popular opinion survey data" was conducted in the Ukrainian Institute of Sociology. It was conducted as part of a project "Public opinion as a measure of the openness of Ukrainian society" being run by the "Democratic Initiatives" foundation with support of the Mott foundation of USA.
According to the director of the "Democratic Initiatives" foundation, Ilia Kucheriv, results of a recently conducted sociological investigation show that the religiousness of Ukrainians has been substantially exaggerated and it has an extremely superficial character. Thus, 66% of those questioned consider themselves believers, but only 19% of them have been married in a church, and 49.15% of those who consider themselves believers have never attended a church service, and almost 25% attend a service only once a year.
Analyzing the results of sociological studies, Ilia Kucheriv comes to the conclusion that at present "in Ukraine the number of believers who really hold to church canons and conduct a corresponding life style does not exceed 15 to 20% of the adult population at large." (tr. by PDS, posted 12 November 2000)
Russian federation President V.V. Putin visited Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus in his working residence on 9 November. They had a conversation, before which the president of Russia, accompanied by the primate of the Russian Orthodox church, viewed the chapel honoring the Vladimir Mother of God icon that is located in the patriarchal residence.
The meeting of the president and patriarch began at 2:00 p.m. and lasted more than two hours.
The complex of buildings of the Moscow patriarchate, which was given to the Russian Orthodox church by J.V. Stalin in September 1943 and still is used as the working residence of the patriarch, is located on Chisty lane. The official patriarchal residence has been located since 1987 in the St. Daniel's monastery.
Meetings such as this one have become a regular practice and are conducted
on the average of one every three months. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 November
2000)
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