The fourth All-Russian training exercises continue

The training exercises for clergyman involved with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement agencies continue at the Baltic Navy Institute in Kaliningrad.

Priests from fifty-five dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of traditional religious communities of Russia take part in them.

On 28 June 2006, clergymen, servicemen, representatives of the public and journalists put to sea aboard a large storm-boat “Kaliningrad” to pay military honours to the sailors who were killed at the Baltics during the Great Patriotic War.

A Vicar of the Smolensk and Kaliningrad Diocese Bishop Seraphim of Baltiysk celebrated requiem service on the traverse of the Cape of Taran (Kaliningrad Region). Passing here is the symbolic line, and all Baltic Navy ships salute the lost when crossing it. A Soviet submarine sank here in the spring 1945.

The Navy commanders and chaplains hauled down a wreath with the cross in commemoration of those who had given their lives for the Motherland..

After the ceremony the clergymen returned to the main naval base in Baltiysk and visited military units and other ships, where they met and talked with personnel.

According to the First Deputy of the Russian Army Directorate for Education Lieutenant-General V. Buslovsky, a fruitful cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Army has continued for over ten years. The importance of exercises can hardly be overestimated, ‘as they help coordinate cooperation among chaplains and the Armed Forces commanders and outline the new forms of cooperation.’

The Lieutenant–General underscored the role of clergymen in the Army. ‘They help avert non-manual relations among the servicemen and in many cases prevent suicides.’

Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy deacon Andrei Kurayev believes that the role of chaplains becomes ever more significant, as our army has been a front-line force for the last twelve years, being involved in military conflicts; and only priests are capable of bringing home to the soldiers, who are risking their lives, the correct understanding of the purpose of their actions and instill in them certain values that should live in the soul of every man and determine his way of life, his faith and worldviews.

That same day in the evening the participants visited the Navy Museum in Baltiysk and had a sightseeing