Historical and Cultural Memorials Used for Worship to Receive Moscow Region Administration’s Support

Over 40 historical and cultural memorials of regional importance used for worship by religious organisations, will gain Moscow Region administration’s support.

To meet this goal some amendments were made in the regional programme ‘The Preservation of Cultural Heritage (Historical and Cultural Memorials) in the Moscow Region in 2006–2008) and approved by the Moscow Regional government on Tuesday.

The programme will be given another paragraph, ‘Supporting religious organisations, working for preservation religious historical and cultural memorials of religion’. The paragraph enlists 44 historical and cultural memorials of regional importance now used as churches, the region’s Minister of Culture Galina Ratnikova said.

‘The churches mostly belong to the Russian Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Old-Believing Church. We used different criteria in selecting them, but one of the most important norms was having a documented budget of restoration works’, – Ms Rtnikova noted.

The list of churches was coordinated with Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna and the Old-Believing Metropolitan Kornily of Moscow and All Russia.

In the nearest future the law project will be passed to the Moscow Region Duma to estimate the funds needed to repair those churches.