Patriarch Kirill’s message of greeting to the 12th Russian World Assembly
His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, sent a message of greeting to the organizers, participants and guests of the 12th Assembly of the Russian World, which opened on November 3, 2018, in Tver. Traditionally, this forum is timed for the People’s Unity Day celebrations.
To the organizers, participants and guests of XII Russian World Assembly
Your Eminence,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I cordially greet all the participants in the 12th Assembly of the Russian World, who have gathered together today in the land of Tver.
This meeting is devoted to a discussion on the important and interesting theme of the universality of Russian culture. This theme is linked not only with a reflection on the contribution made by our culture to the treasury of global culture. The place and role of Russian literature, art, music, theatre and cinematography is impossible to be discoursed without the awareness of the special features which make the creative work of the Russian people a truly unique phenomenon in the history of culture.
One of them was already noted by Fyodor Dostoevsky who wrote that the power of the Russian spirit lies in its ‘strive for all-humanity’ and its ‘ability to feel universal compassion’. Creating their works, writers and artists, composers and playwrights sought to embody in them the eternal ideas of love and goodness, compassion and mercy, appealing to the conscience and moral sense of the human being. It is this super-temporality; ability to rise to the spiritual height and to appeal to the universal, God-commanded values has let the Russian culture occupy a very special place in the history of world culture.
I wish all the participants in the forum fruitful work and God’s help in good deeds and initiatives.
+ Kirill
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia