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Patriarch protests against charges of too close relations of church and state

CHURCH IS NOT JOINED TO THE STATE AND MAKES ALL DECISIONS FREELY—PATRIARCH KIRILL

Interfax-Religiia, 27 July 2015

 

Talks about the joining of the church with the state do not correspond with reality, Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill declared.

 

"Today we live in conditions of complete religious freedom. The church has never been as free as it is now. And do not believe all this that is said to you about some kind of joining with the state and the subordination of the patriarch to the secular authorities," the patriarch said on Sunday after the liturgy in the church consecrated to Holy Prince Vladimir on the territory of the reconstructed Moscow diocesan house.

 

He emphasized that not one single decision has ever been made in the church "on the basis of the order of secular authorities in recent years."

 

The worship service was attended by the presidential envoy of the Central Federal District, Alexander Beglov, teachers and students of the Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Humanities University (the Moscow diocesan house was transferred to the control of this institution of higher education), and hundreds of ordinary believers. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 July 2015)


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