Commenting on unrest in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that “the position our church has assumed– and this position has remained unchanged for the past 25 years– is that our church never yields to any political temptations and never serves anyone’s political interests.”
“It is our position of principle that the Church must remain above fighting,” Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow said in comments to ecclesial leaders on April 30. “It must preserve its peacekeeping potential, even when everyone thinks no peacekeeping potential exists anymore.”
“We must do the pastoral soul-caring work and reconcile people,” said the patriarch, according to the Interfax news agency. “But we must not in any case serve any of the political views, positions or concepts. In that case the Church, remaining above fighting, will be able to preserve its peacekeeping potential.”
