Patriarch Kirill challenges Church to “reset” people’s Minds

Moscow, November 16, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia urged believers to establish a consistent and efficient Church mission which will produce a revolution in the mind of Russian people.

“What is happening in the Church now may be called the “second Christianization.” This country with a thousand years of Christian tradition, which gave birth to many saints and deserved the name of Holy Rus, has denied its historic heritage and ruined the tradition,” the Patriarch said Tuesday at an opening ceremony of the Fourth All-Church Congress of Diocesan Missionaries in Moscow.

According to him, “a new generation has grown on the spiritual ruins of the Orthodoxy” and it’s impossible today “to preach Christ just by appealing to the tradition and inherited memory, we need to make specific missionary efforts.”

He emphasized that the Church’s goal is to make an impact on people; this goal is comparable to the one pursued by the revolutionaries (with the opposite sign); the goal is to “restructure the Orthodox tradition.”

“What huge resources were spent, what kind of organization was established! Today, we need even more powerful organization with a greater potential, challenge, courage and sacrifice,” the Patriarch said.

At the same time, he continued, “even a monk is unwilling to go to Chukotka, i.e., a person who has made a vow – you ask him to come and start talking to him, but he just makes faces and says there is not enough oxygen in Chukotka.”

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