The commonality of people and their unity and strength depend on a common spiritual and cultural space, which is historically common for both Russia and Ukraine.Consequently, the people of the two countries should do their best to preserve common Christian values, says the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill ahead of his missionary mission to Ukraine that runs from the 20th to the 28th of July.
He believes that the forthcoming visit will further strengthen the unity of the two Slavic people.
Orthodoxy in Ukraine was a hostage to political games of the authorities of the country in the past few years. The Ukrainian faithful were divided by orientation towards the West, breaking away from Christian traditions, secularization of the society, and by several other reasons.
Some faithful preferred to follow the pseudo-Orthodox Church setup recently, and some others rejected religious life. The split in the country also triggered a breach at the foreign policy level. Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church were perceived as almost enemies of the Ukrainian people as a whole.
The task of the day is to harmonize political ideals with the basic values of society. Otherwise, Ukrainians, like any other people will lose their identity, says Patriarch Kirill.
“These values originate in faith because the ancient Russian state, out of which the contemporary Ukraine was established, was based on religious values,” says Patriarch Kirill.
“If we do away with our basic values, we will cease to be Russians, Ukrainians or Byelorussians. We will become something else. This will be a disaster for civilization, like in the cases when other people lose their identity. The world will become standardized and fearful, and it will be easy to manipulate with it."
According to Patriarch Kirill, the West with its liberal values and the rejection of Christian roots at the level of religious confessions is a bright example in the coming collapse of civilizations. This is witnessed by an increase in the number of abortions, support for unisexual marriages, biological experiments and female priesthood.
The result of such a perception of the world is a demand for removing crucifixes from public places in Catholic Italy and a ban on wearing the full Islamic veil in public places in France, Italy and Spain and a sharp fall in the number of faithful across the world.
Patriarch Kirill believes that the fight against the liberal anti-Christian threat has brought the positions of the Russian and Roman Catholic Churches closer.
The two uncompromising rivals in the past are now trying to defend Christian values together on the level of international organizations. The common basis of Christianity has made it possible to bring the two Churches closer.
People’s traditions, spiritual culture and common Orthodox roots are the common matrix for Russia and Ukraine.
When the two people are oriented to these basic values they will preserve their roots, and no political, economic or social reasons can divide them.
SIC: TVOR