His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in his report to the first Bishops\u2019 Conference which opened on 2 February 2010 at the Church of Christ the Saviour, addressed the theme of church unity.<\/p>\n
The 2008 Bishops\u2019 Council of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a Resolution on the Unity of the Church. This document recognizes in particular the need to enliven the gift of church-wide unity by strengthening diocesan cooperation and developing communication between various parts of the Russian Orthodox Church. At the same time, it was deemed important to take into account their inherent ethnic and cultural characteristics, remembering that respect for these special features constitutes the power of our Holy Church and contributes to her growth and unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider this document to be \u2018a road map\u2019, a strict compliance with which can deliver us from many difficulties and help us to multiply the fruits of church unity\u2019, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed.<\/p>\n
His Holiness underscored in particular that to consolidate church unity it was important to disseminate liturgical and catechetical texts as well as major documents of the Russian Orthodox Church including Patriarchal messages in the vernacular of peoples the Church nourishes.<\/p>\n
\u2018Our unity should extend beyond state frontiers, political divisions and social, age, cultural and other human differences\u2019, His Holiness said.<\/p>\n
He also reminded the conference that the Russian Church is not only a Church of the Russian Federation, not even a Church of the historical Rus\u2019. \u2018Our Church\u2019s care of her faithful extends to many countries today. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova constitute today the core of the vast space of our common civilization which originated in the Dnieper font of St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles. Our duty is to take pastoral care of our believers and to bear witness before the modern world to the spiritual values of Orthodox tradition and to the historical and cultural unity it has generated\u2019.<\/p>\n
According to His Holiness, the Moscow Patriarchate is open to common actions with state structures and public organizations in all the countries of Russian Orthodoxy, and much has already been done in this respect. Thus, along with the development of parishes and dioceses abroad, a system of cultural and social ties is being built to maintain relations with compatriots who left the countries of historical Rus\u2019 to live outside them.<\/p>\n
\u2018As compatriots we understand not only Russians but also Ukrainians, Byelorussians and Moldavians who live in diaspora\u2019, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church reminded the conference.<\/p>\n
He dwelt in his report on his visit to Ukraine in summer 2009. During that pastoral visit he went to central, eastern, southern and western regions of the country. He prayed at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, the Svyatogorsk and Pochaev and other Monasteries of the Ukrainian Church. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the place in Chersonese where St. Vladimir was baptized. Among the significant events during that visit was a meeting of the Russian Orthodox Church\u2019s Holy Synod which was held for the first time in Kiev, thus underlining the importance of \u2018the Mother of Russian Cities\u2019 as the original primatial chair of Rus\u2019 and one of the Synodal capitals of our Church today.<\/p>\n
\u2018Visiting dioceses, talking with hierarchs and meeting with the people of God in the Ukrainian land, I was convinced again and again that the Holy Rus\u2019 is not a speculative notion, not just a part of our history. It is our present\u2019, His Holiness stressed.<\/p>\n
His Holiness made a special mention of the role of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which, despite the active work of church unity foes, has successfully performed her salvific service as a true Church of the Ukrainian people preserving spiritual unity with the Plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church. \u2018This commitment to church unity is an example for us all\u2019, His Holiness said.<\/p>\n
He also spoke about his visits to other countries in the canonical space of the Russian Orthodox Church including Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and expressed an intention to continue visiting states to which the pastoral care of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia extends, since he believes it his duty \u2018to take care of all the faithful of the Russian Church regardless of their residence\u2019.<\/p>\n
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