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JERUSALEM, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia finally consecrated a Russian cathedral in a Jerusalem suburb on Monday, just over a century after construction began at the site.
“Today is a special day for the convent, for the entire Russian Orthodox Church and personally for me,” the patriarch said after holding a liturgy in the Church of All Russian Saints.
The foundations for the Church of All Russian Saints in the Gornensky Convent were laid in 1911, but construction was suspended 1914 and only resumed in 2003. The Gornensky Convent is situated in the Jerusalem suburb of Ein Karem, where according to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born.
Patriarch Kirill, elected to head the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009, recalled visiting the site in 1969 when the church building consisted of just four walls without a roof or floor.
Nuns and hundreds of pilgrims attended the consecration ceremony. The convent, founded in 1874, currently has some 60 nuns.
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This happens to be on the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Russian Orthodox Church has no right to build a church there without the blessing of the local Patriarch.
ReplyDeleteAll I've read says that permission was given. The Russian Church, as compared to the Romanian Church in recent years, has a rather good relationship with the Jerusalem Patriarchate. Pat. Kirill is supporting Jerusalem against the encroachment of the Israeli govt., battling Christianophobia and anti-Christian violence in the Middle East, and a number of other endeavors to suppor the local Church.
DeleteSince the convent was established in 1874, I think it is safe to say that permission was granted and that the MP & Patriarchate of Jerusalem have a history of getting along. And I know that a hostel for vistors(Orthodox Christians) from Eastern Europe has been around for way over a century. Before WW1 if Orthodox Christians could get to Constantinople there was free passage for them on a boat paid for by the Russians.
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