Metropolitan Kliment of Moscow on inter-religious dialogues

June 23 (Interfax article translated by Voices from Russia) - Metropolitan Kliment Kapalin of Kaluga and Borovsk, the Chancellor of the MP, said that no group within the MP opposes interreligious dialogue. “I have never encountered any “group” in the Church who made such sharp attacks [on interreligious dialogue]”, Metropolitan Kliment said in answer to a question in an interview with the newspaper Izvestiya published on Monday. “You should ask these people, I do not mean certain clergymen, but, those laymen who support them [the following questions]. ‘How frequently do you receive Holy Communion? How frequently do attend church services?’ Then, you shall understand if these are churchmen or not”, he added.

Metropolitan Kliment noted that in the 1990s many people started to call themselves believers. He said, “in order to become a believer, it is necessary to undergo conversion… to acquire a love of neighbour. You see, there is nothing good in their publications. There is no love in them. This is the activity of groups, newspapers, and websites that are not, strictly speaking, church-related, rather, they are quasi-church groups [claiming to represent the Church]”, Vladyki Kliment stated in regards to publications expressing opposition to dialogue with other religions. Such publications recently issued a letter of Bishop Diomid of Anadyr and Chukotka, and also an open letter from a faction of clergymen from his diocese.

Metropolitan Kliment mentioned that “the Church discusses with representatives of other confessions social problems, the challenges posed by terrorism, the ecological crisis, and concerns over the preservation of our cultural heritage, these are questions that stand before all mankind, and which are common to everyone”, and at such meetings the conferees “search for a common solution to these problems so that we can inform general society of the looming dangers facing it”.

In the opinion of Metropolitan Kliment, “any attempt to turn opinion in the Church to marginal viewpoints that differ from the ordinary position held at present should be met sharply and without quarter. ‘Either our way or death!’ they say. This brings absolutely nothing to the discussion; this is a diversion, for this opinion is in complete contradiction to the united voice of the MP”. At the same time, the Archpastoral Council that opens in Moscow on Tuesday “is open to a free and dispassionate examination of the questions disturbing the faithful at present in a truly Orthodox spirit. It is important that this discussion not take place ‘in the marketplace and on the squares’ as St John Chrysostom put it, since, in his time, this opened the way for heretics, but, it should take place in a place where we gather together in a spirit of love. What was true then, is true now”, concluded Metropolitan Kliment.