In a secular state, border guard recruits take an oath “in accordance with the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church”

On July 20, in Kamchatka, 380 border service recruits - 90% of the soldiers from the training center of the North-Eastern Regional Directorate - took the oath "in accordance with the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church."

Major General Mikhail Mikhalchev, deputy head of the SVRU, said that the main thing "for taking an oath on the Cross and the Gospel" is the principle of voluntariness.

The ceremony, during which, after reading the text of the oath, the servicemen kissed the Cross and the Gospel, and then the priest blessed them, was conducted by Bishop Ignatius of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka.

On August 3, another 150 maritime border guards in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky took the oath "according to the Orthodox rite."

Sources

• The border guards will take the oath in accordance with the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church // Atheism.Ru. 2003. July 20.
• 380 young border guards swore allegiance to their Fatherland the day before // There. 21 July.
• In Kamchatka, maritime border guards swore an oath on the Cross and the Gospel // Week. 2003. August 4