2nd Bilateral Seminar of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists December 20, 2006, Moscow

The theme of the seminar was “Commitment to Traditional Christian Values and the Freedom of Conscience”.

The following papers were presented: on Man’s Value as Bearer of the Image of God and His Dignity by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations (DECR) and Yu. Sipko, chairman of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Russia; Modern System of Human Rights and Christian Ethical Principles by A. Pchelintsev, Religion and Law magazine editor-in-chief, and Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, DECR vice-chairman; Inner Freedom from Sin as Related to Freedom of Moral Choice by V. Legoida, Foma magazine editor-in-chief and deputy dean of the Moscow Institute of International Relations department of international journalism, and M. Ivanov, the UECBR department for theology and catechism.

Final Document

1. Man is created in the image and after the likeness of God. The notion of human value is very close to the biblical notion of ‘the image of God’. Christians believe that the image of God is indelible. It can be obscured but cannot be destroyed. Therefore, any person is valuable, regardless of his actions and the state of his soul. For Christians, the God-given value of man is a foundation for respect it should enjoy in society.

2. The goal of human life is to seek the likeness of God. The individual can achieve this goal by God’s power of grace through his faith and free choice of goodness. In doing so, the individual acquires dignity to be supported and developed – which is unthinkable to do without spiritual and moral guidelines. And a social order should take into account and support human desire of perfection, otherwise a society becomes degraded and disintegrate. Everything should be done to promote the development and assertion of human dignity. The dynamic understanding of human dignity can help to build a system of social development more adequate in its meeting human lofty needs.

3. The moral choice is directly linked with individual inner position. It is only the inner freedom of the individual from sin that leads to the correct choice in life. It can be achieved through the acceptance of the gospel and life in Christ.

4. At all times, even in the situation of a totalitarian regime when they were put in prisons and camps, Christians have defended their right to the freedom of conscience. And those who remained free defended their right to confess their faith through a strained dialogue with the authorities. Since the last century 90s, the faithful in Russia have taken an active part in peaceful settlement of inter-ethnic and political conflicts and have taken care of their victims, demonstrating once again their commitment to people’s right to life and freedom. The task of today is to attain a harmonic unity between human rights, moral values and personal responsibility. Human rights are based of human worthiness and should be used to realize human dignity. Christians should defend their right to openly identify some phenomena in our social life as social evil and sin, even if this contradicts the modern notion of ‘political correctness’, and should call people to repentance and improvement.

5. The individual and society cannot attain moral perfection on their own, without God’s grace. At the same time, as the individual is called to respond to God’s action, Christians should be engaged in practical work for propagating in society the Christian view of human rights and dignity. The values of faith and Fatherland should find an appropriate place in Christian witness. Christian work for advocating human rights and social service in the economic and political life of the country should become a means of asserting the moral ideal among their fellow-citizens. This sphere includes the protection of the individual against the arbitrariness of the authorities and employers, struggle with crimes committed on religious and ethnic grounds, concern for ethnic and traditional religious minorities, care of people in places of confinement and social establishments, protection from violence, organized crime and corruption, from involvement in prostitution and human traffic and from the use of alcohol and drugs.

6. A rational and well-considered dialogue with the structures that do not share Christian moral values should become a special concern for Christians. May love of every person and the power of conviction given to us be faith our God Jesus Christ help us in our service.

7. The participants in the seminar deem it important to continue joint reflection on issues of interest and concern for modern society.