PATRIARCH KIRILL: LIFE OF ORTHODOX IN CHINA HAS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER
by Olga Lipich
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill met with the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping. The patriarch had already met with Xi Jinping when he traveled to China in 2013. That meeting was an unprecedented event, since the leaders of China after 1949 had not met with leaders of Christian churches.
Positive changes in the life of Orthodox believers in China were noted by Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill in the course of a meeting with the leader of CPR, Xi Jinping, on Friday in the Kremlin.
"The patriarch thanked the president of the Chinese People's Republic for the positive changes in the life of Orthodox believers in China. Included in this he noted with joy the restoration of the oldest church in China, the church of Alexander Nevsky in Wuhan. A Russian-Chinese cultural center will be opened in it in the near future," Deacon Alexander Volkov, the press secretary of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, told RIA Novosti. He said that the restoration of the church occurred within the framework of cooperation of that region of the CPR with Nizhny Novgorod. People of Nizhny Novgorod are planning to donate an iconostasis to the church. Patriarch Kirill expressed the hope for support of this initiative on the part of the Chinese leader.
Xi Jinping noted that "the Russian Orthodox Church exerted special positive energy in the work of developing Russian-Chinese relations of a strategic partnership." The president of CPR also stressed the contribution of the RPTs in the contemporary struggle against fascism.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Patriarch Kirill presented to the Chinese leader a brass samovar made by Tula masters in the middle of the 19th century. As an addition to this gift there was a collection of a traditional Russian beverage, Ivan-Chai. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 May 2015)
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