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Putin honoured by Patriarch Kirill during service

02 August 2024

Alamy

Patriarch Kirill awards President Putin the Order of Alexander Nevsky, one of the highest orders of the Russian Orthodox Church, during a visit to the Annunciation Church of the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra, on Sunday

Patriarch Kirill awards President Putin the Order of Alexander Nevsky, one of the highest orders of the Russian Orthodox Church, during a visit to the...

RUSSIAN Orthodox leaders have heaped praise on President Putin during celebrations of his name-day, as their Church consolidated its hold over occupied regions of war-torn Ukraine.

“I sincerely thank you for all you are doing today to revive the spiritual life of Russia — and for the conditions the state is creating,” Patriarch Kirill told the head of state at a weekend liturgy in St Petersburg, after presenting him with the Russian Church’s Order of St Alexander Nevsky.

“Russia offers a unique example of how a modern developed country can combine scientific and technical progress with an advanced and fair social system, which respects religious faith, and significantly relies, most importantly, on a spiritual component.”

The Patriarch said that Putin was Russia’s “first truly Orthodox president not hiding his affiliation with the Orthodox Church”, who received communion and lived “a church life”.

He added that he was also “one of the most outstanding political figures of our time”, with “enormous authority in the world”, and deserved “nationwide support” as “truly sovereign leader of a sovereign state, independent of any foreign centres.”

Meanwhile, another Orthodox prelate said that Russians were “giving thanks with fear and trembling” to God for “pouring out abundant blessings” on Putin, and “tenderly crying out” that he would be “delivered from all troubles”.

“May he be given strength and wisdom from heaven for governance and justice - to rule our country well, establish peace and order, and turn its enemies and adversaries to fear and flight,” Metropolitan Pavel (Ponomaryov) of Krutitsy and Kolomna told Kremlin’s Assumption Cathedral on the traditional “Baptism of Rus” state holiday.

He continued: “We also pray that God will look with compassion and mercy upon our army and all defenders of our Fatherland, who in this hour of trial for their souls are laying down their lives for their neighbours.”

The invocations were made as the United States government unveiled a fresh military aid package for Ukraine, including air defence systems, artillery, mortars, and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles, and prepared for delivery in August of the first advanced F-16 fighters, and as Ukrainian attacks caused power outages in Kursk and a continued pull-back of Russian naval forces.

Meeting in late July at Davilov Monastery, Moscow, under Patriarch Kirill’s chairmanship, the Russian Church’s Holy Synod announced new bishops for dioceses annexed in 2022 from Ukraine’s Moscow-linked Orthodox Church, including Skadovsk-Oleshky, Feodosia, and Simferopol, in what was described as a purge by the rival independent Ukrainian Church (OCU).

President Zelensky’s government welcomed a call by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee for Russia to “fulfil its obligations under international law” and “refrain from any action” causing further damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

It said that the appeal, at the Committee’s New Delhi session, which ended on Wednesday, had marked the “first strong condemnation” of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and “purposeful destruction of Ukrainian identity”, and had “given a clear signal” that “the civilised world is on Ukraine’s side”.

In a separate weekend address, however, at a monument to Grand Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv (958-1015), in Moscow’s Borovitsky Square, Patriarch Kirill said that Russia’s “entire culture” was “illuminated and permeated by the saving light of faith”, and was “called to shine today in a world increasingly exposed to sin and false values”.

In a reference to embattled Ukraine, he added that his Church was “fervently praying” that “the wound of division between Russia and Little Russia, inflicted by external hostile forces”, would be healed by St Volodymyr’s intervention.

“If we lose our Christian identity, we will lose Russia and become easy prey for dark forces and dangerous foreign cultural influences,” the Patriarch said.

“The strength of the peoples of historical Rus lies in their unity, built on common spiritual and moral values. This is why those seeking to divide us sow incessant discord and civil strife, with the key goal of driving us into the darkness of a new paganism, deprived of our spiritual and moral core.”

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