25 July 2018 in the hall of the Supreme Church Council of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill headed a meeting of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports patriarhiei.
In the word preceding the meeting, his Holiness reminded of the upcoming this week is the celebration 1030-anniversary of the Baptism of Rus — “a special event in the history of our people, our country and the entire East Slavic Christian civilization.”
“The development of people, country, culture, spirituality — everything has its source in this great historic event,” stressed the Primate.
According to His Holiness, “for people of faith, people of the Church, this event in the first place is because the Light of Christ came to our earth and the Gospel message, touching the hearts and minds of our people, transformed the souls of our ancestors and laid the deepest spiritual tradition in which developed the national life, culture, education, and later science.”
“The deepest Orthodox tradition our people were able to overcome the disasters he encountered on his historic path, — continued the Patriarch. — And, probably, the worst disaster is decades of a godless life, persecution from the unbelievers, striving to destroy religion as a phenomenon to eradicate Christianity from our history, of tradition, of culture, of consciousness, of the attitude of our people.”
“By the grace of God, all these disasters had passed, the Church of God continues its existence, our nation is going through a second Baptism, called the end of the twentieth century — largely joined the Orthodox faith”, — noted with satisfaction his Holiness.
“But today the Church is faced with significant challenges associated with preaching the gospel, education of children and young people. Big challenges in the field of dialogue between Church and society, the Church and the scientific community, the Church and the intelligentsia, because together we must do everything to avoid the mistakes of the past that led to so many problems in the lives of our people and our state”, — said the Patriarch.
“We hope that the celebration 1030-anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, in particular, will contribute to overcoming the divisions, disagreements, schisms in the Ukrainian land. May the Lord bless our land and our people”, — concluded his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill.