Patriarch Kirill urges Orthodox people to be example of mutual assistance

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said the Orthodox peoples should show an example of mutual assistance and faith to traditional values. In his message after the praying service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on Wednesday, Patriarch Kirill said: “The Baptism of Rus is a live-giving source, which allows us to build the countries, which are heirs of Rus, based on God’s eternal values.” “The nations, which lost the ethnic of self-restriction and service of God, Motherland and the neighbour, are becoming weak and sensible. This is fraught with the disappearance,” the Russian patriarch said. He stressed that 25 years after the religious restoration on the post-Soviet land “God waits for new fruits and the unity of faith and life should be one of the priority ones”. “For a long time we lived in one big country. Now we are sovereign states. But our spiritual unity, which is preserved by God’s strength, existed and exists,” the patriarch said. During the praying service, Patriarch Kirill said the Orthodox hierarchs thanked God for the mercy that he gave the peoples. “We should recognize with humility that the world history did not know the grandiose religious restoration,” he said. The praying service opened the festivities devoted to the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. They will take place in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on July 24-29. The next praying services with the participation of the hierarchs will take place in Kiev (July 27-28) and in Minsk (July 29). The services will be held open air and thousands of pilgrims will be able to take part in them.