he's available in. central. full stop. to the beach.

with us. right now. russia. republican. former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. john bolton says if. it's got just three days left to do it. this week radioactive catastrophe. and. president wants to stop private security companies operating in the country prompting fears that nato troops will struggle. without them. and dropping

visas for football fans and a new state of the art studio built from scratch there the key selling points to a visiting fee for delegation in russia's bid to host of the soccer world cup in eight or twelve years time. next to look at the role of the orthodox church in modern russia today's guest in our interview show spotlight is chairman of the church relations department metropolitan area. culture is that so much i can tell you that you know larry summers and i believe that they know nothing less than us and after forty years the so-called war on drugs has achieved preciously little nonetheless governments around the.

hole again awoken to the spotlight advance of the show i take tylenol or no and today my guest on the show is metropolitan polarity june twelfth as one of the main dates in the history of new russia three new from the communist twelve almost twenty years after the collapse of the soviet union the russians are still looking for they new identity is the changing borders and one of the main goals here for 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 is 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 thing been your rashi's 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 from the show. first of all i would long. since the twelfth of june is one of the national holidays of russia all the day of russia it's not the only holiday in this country russia seems to be looking for its identity for its new identity as a new state as a need 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 of russian history was conceived 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 if i may see reason from so that it was never there of course but it was. after the collapse of the soviet union and now it is concealed there is by many people in russia as one of the strongest or perhaps the 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 is the degree of spiritual values or 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 man and

woman. on mutual feed then it's in 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 the yes we see considerable revival of religious life. we see that many people in including young people come to the church we see that. for example. there are 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 post christian book and many churches in the west complain about the sure of the cheerful cations we do not complain about the shortest 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 author of christianity is still the most popular the biggest religion here while the president of this country the prime minister go to an orthodox church do you have privileges the orthodox church there's a tariff 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 maturity of the population of the russian orthodox church has a very strong influence. we can say that it is not comparable to the influence of has a really chin's we also see as

a major coup of moscow and it is regarded not only as the chief priests of orthodox clergy but also. 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 him 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 a. master sort of of the russian orthodox church can you compare the

the the influence of church as an institution on the public on the public opinion on the country and how any europe in russia because people see that in russia it is greater is it true i think it is greater and russia. of course in 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 suppose i am speaking about local leaders of local catholic communities they are very often in my opinion too shy and they do not there to speak on political issues on social issues they somehow. except the point of view according to which churches should be dealing exclusively with religious and church issues we

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 church criticize acting politicians would that be considered as an interference into politics it can and should criticize political 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 the slide into

politics well 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 whole thomas and is not only for political. the church. is not only for the church people obviously and politics is not only for the politicians 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 paly. it's a cool 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 reply to those critics well i think. the current situation. is very favorable to the work with the state because the situation which we have now is a 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 non interference into

each other's affairs so for example the church is free to elect its patriarchy 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're now if very close collaboration on many issues without i repeat without interfering into each other's affairs. for example such issues as the demographic crisis it is impossible to deal with it . exclusively from the canonic or political point of view or exclusively from the religious point. if you hear we have to join our forces and this and many other similar areas are precisely those where the church and the state can and should

collaborate says mitchell poet an hilarious and we will continue our interview with the head of the external relations department of the russian orthodox church paul took a short break so stay with us. the team has been to the kaluga missions where the commander stream is rapidly developing. argy goes to the area where the first russian fleet was born. where the indigenous people were the first arctic seas navigated and where russia's glorious history is still visible. and welcome to. russia close up on.

extracting black gold is dangerous. worldwide demand pushes the limits to catastrophe. is the price too high. is it possible to prevent such disasters. and can be off to must be dealt with quickly and effectively. oil spills and thrills on oxy. welcome back to spotlight are were just a reminder that today our guest is metropolitan area and 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 and the situation in which we find the russian orthodox church today in modern world in what or russia but even in modern russia today while the people i want to repeat still continue searching russia and searching for their identity change will 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 church towards that and is the orthodox church. compatible with democracy it's not very democratic institution is it well first of all i don't think that there are so many people who. are for the monarchy and who

would call for restoration of the monarchy. secondly i would like to say that tradition and the past the are two different things. when we speak about the past it is something which we should not normally repeat when we speak of 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 continued c. which means unbroken line of. experience of spiritual experience of moral values which are transmitted from one generation to another and this is. in their way is a foundation on which the church stands and it is also the foundation on which human life. 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 what i am going to say it's it's not a democratic party right i feel it. i think to a certain degree it's very democratic 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 baptized when i was too small to make a choice here as though 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 would be rather stupid to expect from the child that he should ask for food. before food is given to him so you were but you grew up you became a grown up person and then you. choose you are not obliged to stay in the church you are not obliged to obey the rules of course we. will see this and as above taste personally you will always be can see that a member of the church even if you refused to be such. but when you return or if you return you will not do it again. was there any harm done to you by your being booked 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 there are things in the church which are not changeable and there are many things which are changed the unchangeable things are for example the doctrine which we cannot change we cannot modify because this is what we receive from servility 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 a golden 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 it was a question of the literature co-lead which it's a very disputable quick quick question the. language or the church slavonic language which we are using today is not at all the same language as was used by cyril and before that is. go there for iran this weekend which is developing and the life of the church is developing there are many parts of the russian orthodox church which do not speak the russian or church slow or nick they celebrate services in the mall there or. in glacier or whatever or a wind which. may exist in

a place where the church exists so all this things change your vote and they are and what of discussion within the church there are people for example who call for the use of their in their killer russian in the 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 eyes or in russia or in some other place. i think this meeting will take place but we are not here to raise it to speak. or work cation or the timing of such meeting because it has to be prepared and not only from the point of view of the protocol and their gender. there are some issues which have to be solved before this meeting takes place there is the issue of the reservoir. 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. when people ask me how different the russians are from from the europeans from other people on the planet. i 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 he still whatever war is it a different civilization with a different religion or 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 in 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 am not speaking about membership in the european union i am speaking about some kind of cultural identity which was somehow ingrained in the russian soul from the very beginning but which received its impetus

especially. after the reforms or after the reforms of peter 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 a cauldron of god for you and let's keep the show interacts hoover back with more first time comments on what's going on in and outside russia and the length of stay in our teeth and take it. to suit and to.

do. it. and.