Eastern Christian countries capable of altering humankind in 10 years – Archpriest Chaplin
Moscow, May 14, Interfax – Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other Eastern Christian countries are meant to change the entire humankind together, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has said.
“Our Christian Orthodox, Eastern Slavic civilization is not the most numerous but it is central because it is it that knows today how to open doors to a better life for the whole world, especially for Europe,” he said during a Moscow-Kiev-Minsk video linkup on Monday.
The linkup was dedicated to international public hearings that are due in Kiev on July 28, the Day of the Baptism of Rus, and will be chaired by Patriarch Kirill.
In the priest`s opinion, the future of Europe belongs not to London, Paris or Brussels, but to Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Chisinau, Athens and Bucharest, “the cities that are centers of the Eastern Christian civilization.”
“Today we – Kiev, Minsk and Moscow – are more than Europe, more than the West of our continent. The West betrayed the ideals of Rome, of Christianity, of Europe that used to be based on Roman law and Christian ideals which Emperors Constantine and Justinian combined with Roman law,” he said.
“Remembering that today our civilization should not be following the weak-willed West or intellectually weak East. We should not be dependent or obedient in the world of a dialogue of civilizations. We should combine intellect and will, traditions and innovations, faith and life, spirituality and earthliness. It is our duty to change the world in 10 years and we can do it,” the priest believes.
He voiced hope that festivities on the Day of the Baptism of Rus in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine will be spectacular and, more importantly, meaningful, attracting great numbers of young people, making them think that the feast “speaks of something much more important than the economy, politics or arguments about the subtleties of government.”
“All that will change many, many times while the civil vector of the development of our peoples will remain unchanged as we hope and believe. We are called upon today to develop the Eastern Christian civilization that has keys to the future of the whole world,” he concluded adding that “the apocalypse is the alternative to our road.”
