Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service
21 May 2010


Istanbul-based Patriarch's Moscow visit 'marks improved relations'
ENI-10-0345


By Sophia Kishkovsky
Moscow, 21 May (ENI)--A visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I
of Constantinople to Moscow is expected to underscore a thawing in
relations after decades of tension during the Soviet era and
post-Soviet geopolitical turmoil.

Bartholomeos arrives in Russia on 22 May and will take part in a
service the following day - Pentecost Sunday - with Patriarch Kirill I
of the Russian Orthodox Church at the centuries-old Holy Trinity St
Sergius Lavra church near Moscow. They will concelebrate again on 24
May at Christ the Saviour Cathedral opposite the Kremlin in the
Russian capital, and then hold talks the next day at Kirill's
residence outside Moscow.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the world's largest Orthodox church.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is regarded as being the most important
symbolically, but Moscow has chafed when the Istanbul-based Patriarch
of Constantinople is described as an Orthodox equivalent of a Roman
Catholic pope.

Andrei Zubov, a historian and director of a centre for the study of
the church and international relations at MGIMO, the Russian foreign
ministry's university, told ENInews that Patriarch Kirill is working
to overcome the legacy of the Soviet past inherited by the Russian
church.

"Patriarch Kirill came to his throne, to his position, with the idea
of sharply improving relations both with Constantinople and with Rome,
and he is very active in these two directions," said Zubov in a 21 May
interview.

Kirill, who was enthroned as Patriarch in February 2009, visited
Bartholomeos and the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul
in July. There the two patriarchs spoke of the need to cast
differences aside and present a united Orthodox front against secular
evils.

The visit by Bartholomeos to Moscow comes after a mission to the
Vatican by Metropolitan Hilarion, Kirill's successor as chairperson of
the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations.
Hilarion is also a composer and his visit included a 20 May
performance of a symphony by him called "A Song of Ascent", attended
by Pope Benedict XVI.

While in Rome, Hilarion said that it is his goal for Patriarch Kirill
and Pope Benedict to meet.

Attempts to organize a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Kirill's
predecessor, Patriarch Alexei II, failed. Relations between the two
churches in the 1990s were marred by disputes over Ukraine and about
Russian charges that Catholics were proselytising - seeking converts -
in Russia, something denied by the Catholic Church.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, intra-Orthodox conflicts over
jurisdictional allegiance have flared in Estonia and Ukraine as some
Orthodox groups sought to break free of Moscow as their countries
gained independence. Similar issues have arisen in other European
countries in recent years, with an influx of Russians leading to
divided parishes and property disputes. Some of those disenchanted
have turned to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a refuge against the
Moscow Patriarchate's growing strength.

Moscow and Constantinople also have a longstanding dispute over
Moscow's authority to grant autocephaly, or self-governing status, to
the Orthodox Church in America in 1970.

"Bad relations with Constantinople and bad relations with Rome were a
mandatory condition of Soviet church ideology," said Zubov, the Moscow
historian and analyst. "The Moscow Patriarchate was restored in its
day by Stalin in 1943 with the goal of counteracting the Vatican and
Constantinople as centres of Christianity not controlled by the Soviet
regime."

The Russian church was influenced for decades by this way of thinking, he
said.

"Two generations of Russian bishops and Russian theologians were
raised with this psychological heritage," Zubov stated. "So what is
happening now is namely the overcoming of the Soviet, KGB heritage,
the Soviet control of the church ... This is the restoration of normal,
natural relations between the churches after the unnatural relations
of the Soviet period." [634 words]
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On May 24th the same article is to appear in International Herald Tribune.

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