Church unites people beyond national boundaries – ROC Primate

It was said on October 16 by the His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kiril during his visit to Sourozh Diocese after consecration of the Cathedral based in London, according to the official portal of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Church brings people together beyond national, social, pecuniary, and political boundaries. The Church intrinsically cannot stick either to the right, to the left or to the centrist. She cannot be either on the rich side against the poor or on the poor side against the rich. The Church cannot represent one nationality versus another nationality. The Church is a community, open to the world, inside which all human contradictions get blended. A well-to-do man can stand next to a low-to-do one, a high-rank person can be among commons – to demonstrate the Church knows no distinctions and differences,” underscored the Primate.

“The Church is called to perform a similar role also in international relationships. Through faith, religion, Church a soul of the nation reveals itself and the Church represents its people outwardly at the deepest level. I believe that here, in Great Britain, lots of people discover to themselves Russia and Orthodoxy thanks to your community in the same way as we better understand the British and their country by learning about a religious life of British people. Tight interaction between countries and nations is particularly noticeable at the spiritual and cultural level and it is not affected by a certain political ambience of the moment faced,” he stated. .

From 15 to 18 October His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kiril was paying a visit to Great Britain on the occasion of celebrating a 300 anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church’s presence in the British Isles.

Prior to that Ambassador of Ukraine in Great Britain Natalia Galibarenko shot down a decision of British Queen Elizabeth II to meet with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kiril.