Updates from the Russian Church

On growth...

Moscow, February 2 (Interfax) – For the recent year, the Moscow Patriarchate has opened 900 new parishes, while total number of clerics has grown for more than 1,500 people.

Patriarch Kirill voiced the statistical data on the Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday at a Bishops’ Meeting in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Today the Russian Church has 30,142 parishes (in December 2008 their number equaled to 29,263), 160 dioceses (compared to 157 last year), 207 bishops (compared to 203), total number of clerics is 32,266 people (compared to 30,670).

When the 1000^th anniversary of Russia’s Baptism was celebrated in 1988, the Moscow Patriarchate had 6893 parishes, 76 dioceses, 74 hierarchs and total number of clerics made 7,397 people.

On reorganization...

Moscow, February 2 (Interfax) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has said he will continue to pursue reforms within the Russian Orthodox Church.

"The administrative reforms launched are not a goal in itself. They must become the backbone of further reforms in the [Russian Orthodox] Church," the Russian Patriarch told Archbishops at a conference in Moscow Christ the Savior Cathedral on Tuesday.

Importantly, the current reform "is a result of live discussions, and of a collective, to be more exact, concerted work," he said.

The Moscow Patriarchate's Executive Department was "radically reorganized," responsibilities of the External Church Relations Department were "specified," new synodal services were formed and a theologian postgraduate department was set up, Patriarch Kirill said.

"A positive conclusion of a long-lasting dialogue between Russia's traditional religions and the government on teaching the essentials of religious culture at general schools and on the introduction of military clergy" was one of the most remarkable events of the past year, he said.

On distributing texts...

Moscow, February 2 (Interfax) – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes the Church’s basic documents should be easy to understand to believers of the countries included in the Moscow Patriarchate.

“I believe it extremely useful for strengthening church unity to spread liturgical, catechetic texts and the most important documents of the Russian Orthodox Church, including patriarchal messages, in basic languages of peoples in its jurisdiction,” Patriarch Kirill said on Tuesday at a Bishops’ meeting in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

He reminds that today the Russian Church takes care of “her faithful children in many countries,” including Ukraine, Byelorussia and Moldavia, which constitute “a core of vast area of our shared civilization originated from the Dnepr font of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir.”

“We bear a duty of pastoral care for our believers and witness to spiritual values of Orthodox tradition, to historical and cultural unity originated from it in the contemporary world,” Patriarch Kirill believes.

This year the Russian Church Primate hopes to continue “practice of visiting states, which are under pastoral care of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.”