His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia speaks at the festive meeting dedicated to the 275th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences

HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH ALEXY II OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA SPEAKS AT THE FESTIVE MEETING DEDICATED TO THE 275TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OD SCIENCES

Celebration of the 275th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held at the State Kremlin Palace on June 4. Sitting in the presidium were Chairman of the government of the Russian Federation Sergey V.Stepashin, mayor of Moscow Yu.M.Luzhkov, renowned representatives of national science and culture, foreign guests.

Present at the meeting to congratulate Russian scholars on the glorious jubilee were His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia addressed the audience with a welcoming speech:

‘Dear colleagues! I hope that I have the right to call your colleagues as today I testify that our closeness is indivisible. It is based on the unity in faith and knowledge which enrich each other harmoniously creating man and humanity. The mind and the heart shape a person. Science and religion unite their efforts for the sake of the transfiguration of our world, the well-being and inner perfection of its inhabitants. Wisdom, acquired through the knowledge of the laws of nature given by God and the study of social processes help people to lead a worthy, intelligent and purposeful life.
The Bible teaches us: ‘It is not good for a man to be without knowledge, and he who makes haste with his feet misses his way’ (Prov.19:2).

Yet it is the moral dimension of human activities, the scholarly one including, that allow people to use their God-given talents for their own good and that of their neighbours. Moreover, the knowledge sometimes loses its integrity if it is not imbued by the Spirit, since, according to the Holy Scriptures, ‘a scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding’ (Prov.14:6).

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian scholarly world have closely cooperated during centuries. Even in the old times the monastic abodes and theological schools were the centers of knowledge and custodians of peoples’ experience. Widely known are the exploits of our missionaries who explored the vast territories of Russia. The outstanding representatives of the national theological scholarly tradition were full members of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the last century, but in the 20th century there were attempts to forcibly separate faith and science and set them off against each other. Yet at present people of the Church and secular scholars are again making steps towards each other, as they see advantages of common work and mutually enriching discussions.

It is impossible now to give all examples of the renewed cooperation between the Church and Russian science. Let me remind you of some. Recently we have released the ‘History of the Russian Church” in many volumes together with the Russian Academy of Sciences. The works of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov), who was a full member of the Academy of Sciences before the revolution, are the basis of this encyclopaedia. Church awards were conferred on many scientists and scholars. The Moscow Patriarchate together with the Russian Academy of Science and the Government of Moscow revived the tradition of the Macarius’ prizes awarded with which are experts in the Russian Church and history of Moscow. Today Russia and the whole world are preparing to celebrated the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ and the coming of the third millennium. The fact that President of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a member of the church jubilee commission is a good token of cooperation between the Church and the scholarly world on the threshold of this great historical landmark…

I believe that the Russian science would overcome all difficulties of the time, retain its great traditions and intensify the work done to the glory of the Fatherland and to the good of people. May the Lord be with you, my dear, and may He help you.