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in israel. for the full. face to face with. us this is our moscow let's take a look at the top stories international sports official. as are in russia to assess

it as a potential host for the planet's most spectacular football event the world cup and if the country's big wins twenty eighteen will be the first time tournament it's held in eastern europe. it's a year since the disaster at russia's biggest hydroelectric plant in siberia seventy five people died when the turbine hall was flooded the investigation into the devastating accident still ongoing. and washington is divided over the afghan withdrawal deadline set by president obama for mid twenty one of a new nato troop commander says the date might be too early while the u.s. defense secretary insist it's. next to look at the role of your three x. church in modern russia today's guest in our interview show spotlight is chairman off the church's external relations department metropolitan hilarie on.

again i walked into the spotlight even through a show i taped i already know of and today my guest on the show is metropolitan polarity june twelfth as one of the main dates in the history of new rochelle three from the colorist to it almost twenty years after the collapse of the soviet union the russians are still looking for the new identity is the changing world and one of the main goals here to the russian orthodox church what exactly is the church doing today to help the russians change their country and is it changing itself tolson these and other questions my guest on the show is the chairman of the external relations department in the russian orthodox church. metropolitan hilarion he's one of the most high profile figures in the modern russian orthodox church he started serving in masses when he was fifteen and later left musical

college to become a monk metropolitan hilarion has a ph d. from oxford university and lectures at top theological colleges but despite being progressive politics hilarion respects the traditions of the russian orthodox church he believes they provide continue to people's identity a theme of the new russia is craving so how can the russian orthodox church help its people realize who they are metropolitan hilarion is here to give his views on this edition of spotlight. thank you very much for being with us on the show. first of all i would like to. the twelfth of june is one of the national holidays of russia all the day of russia it's not the only day in this country russia seems to be. be looking for its identity for its new identity as the new state needs as

a new rich today what's the role of the church in this process today of finding for this for this new ideas new identity. throughout the history of russia the role of the church has been formative and it is impossible to think about russian history with can see during the influence that the church exercised on all segments of the russian society. the church was suppressed and persecuted during the soviet totalitarian regime but it. was. a reason from so that it was never there of course but it was. the collapse of the soviet union and now it is conceived there is by

many people in russia as one of the strongest or perhaps this strongest moral and spiritual force. after the collapse of the syria union in the soviet ideology that went together the soviet union many are talking about the moral decay in the country the other is on the contrary are talking about religious renaissance what would you say what is what is right what's happening with the morale today both sides right to a certain extent because we definitely see a considerable moral decay we see of the degree of spiritual value as of moral values which for centuries constitute the basis of human existence for example. of the traditional idea of the family. based on mutual trust on the love between

a man and the woman. on mutual feed then it's the spouses also. bringing up many children which is no longer popular. and instead of traditional image of the family. various sexual deviations are propagated by the must media and unfortunately many people. take take this side. and parallel to this we see a considerable revival of religious life. we see that many people and including young people come to the church we see that. for example.

more than eight hundred new monasteries and each of them is filled with monks or nuns and this is during that time which many in the west call. in the book and many churches in the west complain that the shorter cheerful. we do not complain about the shorter shortage of occasions because very mania young people come to the church and become priests. your eminence. christianity orthodox christianity has long been the main religion and sometimes even the official state religion in russia but today there are lots of religions that are existent in the country but. christianity is still the most popular the biggest religion here while the prison. of this country the prime minister go to an orthodox church do you have privileges the orthodox church does

it have any privileges at all in the country we don't have any privileges with regards to the law for example we are sure officially and not officially we. have equal status to any as a religion of course there is the law on the freedom of conscience which mentions orthodox christianity islam buddhism judaism and christianity in general as traditional religions but this is mentioned in the preamble and nowhere else in the text of the war any preference is given to any of this religions. and of course we can see that being the church of the majority of the population the russian orthodox church has a very strong influence there we can say that it is not comparable to the influence

of has a really chin's we also see as a pitcher or a coup or moscow and the russia is regard that not only as the chief priests of orthodox clergy but also as in their way as a spiritual leader of the entire nation and many people who belong to other religions including religious leaders. are. in constant dialogue with hume and very often he convenes he can vokes. meetings or. representatives of different religions in order to come to a common position so the church also. plays a very strong unifying growth in our society for a long time you have worked in v.n. in europe as. nasser sort of of the russian orthodox church can you compare

the the influence of church as an institution on the public on the public opinion on the country and how inherent in russia because people see that in russia it is greater is it true i think it is greater and. of course in the europe there are countries like austria for example where the catholic church is the church of the majority of people where it is indeed quite influential on and very often catholic leaders i am not speaking about the pope i am speaking about local leaders of local catholic communities they are very often in my opinion to shy and they do not there to speak on political issues on social issues they somehow. accept the point of view according to which churches should be dealing exclusively with religious and church

issues we are on the contrary believe that the church should be fair meant for the entire society and that the church can speak about many issues not only religious or so logical but also social and related to human life and we believe that the church should play important social role and this is what we see in our country should the true church criticize acting politicians would that be. it isn't interference into politics it can and should criticize political terms if they for example call to immoral acts or if they. propagate views which are unacceptable from the church point of view and you don't consider it to be or the state doesn't consider to be interference

into state to slide into politics politics has to do with human life and as long as it touches human lives the church should be concerned politics is not something completely photon was and is not only for political reasons. the church. is not only for the church people obviously and politics is not only for the political and so it's for the people so very often the interests of the politicians and of the church people somehow. coincide and therefore. it is impossible to speak about interference if for example the church expresses its or opinion on a certain political issue. the russian orthodox church has been criticized

a lot including by the church people from the inside for being too close to the state you know what i mean how do you replied to those critics well i think. the current situation. is very favorable to. the state because the situation which we have now is unique for history. for seventy years of the communist regime the church was persecuted and there was no dialogue with the secular. powers at all before that before the revolution. for more than two hundred years the church was a part of the state organism and therefore it was not free it was it was linked to closely with the state. what we see now is on the one hand a complete separation of the church from the state and mutual interference into

each other's affairs so for example the church is free to elect its its bishops nobody from outside would influence these internal processes. and vice versa the politicians do their job the church may criticize them or may give them advice but they are doing what they're doing. with the state authorities in the russian federation we are. very close collaboration on many issues without i repeat it was out interfering into each other's affairs. for example such issues as the demographic crisis it is impossible to deal with it. exclusively from the core political point of view or exclusively from the religious point of view here we have to join our forces and say this and many other similar

areas are precisely those where the church and the state can and should collaborate . to larry and we will continue our interview with the head of the external relations department of the russian orthodox jewish culture a short break so stay with us.

in the piece suit brighton if you move beyond sound from phones to impressions. dot com. you can see. what about a spotlight i were on just a reminder that today our guest is metropolitan hilarion the chairman of the external relations department in the russian orthodox church your eminence you have told us. quite a lot of interesting things about the relations of the states with the cherish about the position the situation in which we find the russian orthodox church today

in modern a world in what or russia but even in modern russia today while the people i want to repeat still continue searching russians searching for their identity the changing world many people try to look for it in the past in the immoderately in the tradition of russia and there are a lot of people who believe that monarchy is what would be best for the church well what i wanted to ask you what's the what's the attitude of the orthodox jewish towards that and is the orthodox church. compatible with. mark recy it's about a very democratic institution is it well first of all i don't think that there are so many people who would be a nostalgic for the monarchy and who would call for restoration of the monarchy. secondly i would like to say that tradition and the past the these are two

different things. when we speak about the past it is something which we should not normally repeat when we speak about tradition for the. religious people it's a very important notion and it is what i would say a tradition with a capital t. which means continuities which means broken line of. experience of spiritual experience of moral values which are transmitted from one generation to another and this is in their ways a foundation on which the church stands and it is also the foundation on which human life. has existed for centuries and for millenia. therefore the church is always traditional which doesn't mean that it should be looking at the past. the in traditional means being rooted in the

experience of previous generations of our fathers and mothers of our grandparents. you are asking whether the church is a democrat a democratic organism well it's difficult to say but i have noticed it's not a democratic party right i feel it yes well i think to a certain degree it's original created because first of all. the very fact that someone is a member of the church is a matter of his or her own free choice therefore nobody is actually compelled not always i was baptist sized when i was too small to make a choice here as well you were also feared by milk and by. products when you didn't make any choice this was the church choice of your parents it will be rather stupid to expect from the child that he should ask for food. before food

is given to him so you were asked but you grew up you became a grown up person and then you can choose you are not obliged to stay in the church you are not obliged to obey the rules of course we call encourages this and as above titus personally you will always be can see that a member of the church even if you refuse to be such. but when you return or if you return you will not be updated again. was there any harm done to you by your being baptized i don't think so. in the changing world it does have to change does it have to follow the

turned and sees the russian orthodox church is one of the most orthodox institutions in the world anyway well it still lives according to the old calendar it still speaks in cherishing the old slavic language which is known in the existant so. do the word change what does it mean mean for you is it exist in the dialogue between yourselves yes well there are things in the church which are not changeable and there are many things which are changing the unchangeable things for example the doctrine which would not change we cannot modify it because this is what we receive from. we believe that it is a divine truth which was revealed to us therefore unchanged will be the face and the holy trinity in the jesus christ as god and savior unchanged are many moral norms related to religious life but there are many changeable things

like the customs for example a certain local traditions in the question of the literature to lend which it's a very disputable quick quick question the all slow warning. language or the church slavonic language which we are using today is not at all the same language as was used. for the years eleven centuries ago therefore in this land which is developing and the life of the church is developing there are many parts of the russian orthodox. church which do not speak as a russian or church slow or nick they celebrate services in the mall there or. in english or whatever other language. may exist in the place where the church exists so all this things change your vote and they are and letter of discussion was in the church there are people for example who call for the use

of their in their killer russian literature called service there are many people who say that it is in the book there is an ongoing discussion which will definitely bring some results. you spent a lot of time working preaching in europe. your. boss the head of the russian orthodox church the patriarch used to be. the head of the foreign relations department of the church so the church today the russian orthodox church many feel that it's turning towards europe is becoming more open to to. corporation with a european country one of the questions that all the christians around the world are asking is the pope ever coming to visit russia do you think this will happen in

your lifetime well the first question which we should pose is the pope and the patriarch of moscow will meet. in russia or in some other place. i think this meeting will take place but we are not here to read it to speak. look asian or the timing of such meeting because it has to be prepared and not only from the point of view of the protocol and the agenda. there are some issues which have to be solved before this meeting takes place. there is the issue of reservoir office three or as are difficult situation in western ukraine the situation which we inherited from the. nine hundred ninety s. but of course the history is much longer. there are many other difficulties which we have to discuss before. we. embark on

the preparation of such a meeting and therefore as soon as we reach some kind of agreement on this crucial issues will start preparing this meeting. people ask me how different the russians are from from the europeans from other people on the planet how you usually see that russia russia is a different universe russia is really different universes on the planet but if we speak about civilizations which is slightly different what would you say is russia part of any civilization east to west whatever or is it a different civilization with a different religion with a different set of ideas and beliefs well russia is multi-ethnic multi-lingual multicultural. multi-religious and as such it cannot be a part of only one civilization i believe that russia is an integral part of the

european civilization when the other hand russia is also an integral part of the asian civilization and mania. ethnic groups who live and russia they would actually consider themselves being closer to asian density then to the european they dance it's. the russian federation as it exists now of course is a european country i'm not speaking about membership in. the european union i am speaking about some kind of cultural identity which was. ingrained in the russian soul from the very beginning but which received its impetus especially after the reforms or after the reforms of pizza was a great thank you thank you very much for being with us in just a reminder that my guest on the show today was a metropolitan hail mary and chairman of the foreign relations department in the

russian orthodox church and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say on spotlight you can always drop me a line. through t.v. . and let's cue the show. who will be back with more first time comments on what's going on in and outside russia stay in our teeth and take it. if you are.