Metropolitan Kirill blesses the new governor of the Kaliningrad Region for his important service

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad attended the inauguration of G. Boos as new governor of the Kaliningrad Region, on September 28, 2005.

There were over 600 guests who came to Kaliningrad for the ceremony, among them deputy prime minister A. Zhukov, presidential envoy for the Northwest Region I. Klebanov, State Duma deputy speaker A. Chilingarov, Presidential representative in the State Duma A. Kosopkin, as well as Kaliningrad Duma deputies and representatives of the public.

Addressing the new leader of the region in the course of the ceremony, His Eminence Kirill, said in particular:

‘It is a special day today not only in your life, Mr. Governor, but also in the life of the entire Kaliningrad Region. By the will of the Russian President and the Regional Duma, you are taking over the post of administrator and leader. But nothing happens without God’s will. No man is given to understand how God’s will enters the context of human history, how the divine and the human relate. But we know one thing: all the great things in history are accomplished by the will of the Creator. And I as ruing bishop of the Kaliningrad land should say this to you in the very first hour of your service as governor. The responsibility you bear is not only before the president and the people. It is also responsibility before God. And if you are aware of this, your service will be a success’.

Then the metropolitan spoke about the significance of the Kaliningrad Region for Russia and the significance of Russia for the Kaliningrad Region and about the exceptional importance of the problem of self-identification of the people in the region.

‘We in Kaliningrad as nowhere else feel what a threat to ethnic, cultural and religious assimilation is. Therefore it is so important for us to know and understand who we are’, Metropolitan Kirill noted.

The ruling bishop also spoke about the talk he had with G. Boos two days earlier. The governor emphasized then that he did not at all see the problems of ethnic, cultural and religious life as peripheral or secondary.

‘I do hope’, Metropolitan Kirill said, ‘that in the Kaliningrad Region neighbouring on countries lying west of Russia, we will remain ourselves, unbreakably united with the great multinational Russian people with their culture, faith, age-old traditions and spiritual power’.

Metropolitan Kirill also thanked the previous governor V. Yegorov for all the good he had done. According to His Eminence Kirill, leaving the gubernatorial office, V. Yegorov left a bright imprint on the history of the region.

In conclusion of his address, Metropolitan Kirill, following the tradition that has established itself in the diocese of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, blessed the new governor for his important service with an icon of St. George the Conqueror.

Making a sign of the cross with the icon over the head of the governor, Metropolitan Kirill expressed the wish that God’s blessing and the intercession of St. George might be with him, the Kaliningrad land and the whole of Russia.