Translated material
Metropolitan Kirill - on state-confessional relations and the role of the Church in international politics
In an interview with the French magazine Diplomatie, Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad outlined his vision of state-confessional relations.
According to the metropolitan, the "symphony" "to this day continues to influence the Orthodox understanding of church-state relations. However, one must distinguish between the historical teaching about the symphony, which belongs entirely to the past, and its methodological foundations, which can be applied today."
“In my opinion, there is nothing bad and threatening the freedom of people of other faiths if the state publicly declares its special relations with the religions of the majority of the population of its country,” the head of the DECR said. “In this case, clear and understandable rules for church-state relations appear, which are better amenable to public control. I would believe that in Russia it would be useful to establish similar special relations with the four traditional religions of our country: Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. This would allow the state and religious communities to cooperate in various public spheres in proportion to the number of believers belonging to one or another traditional religion".
Metropolitan Kirill believes that the Orthodox Church can also participate in international politics, where its role "could be to promote the construction of a multipolar world in which there is a place for various worldview systems."
"The Orthodox tradition," the hierarch believes, "is called upon to make its contribution to the development of the common European space." However, "in response to their willingness to participate in the development of European integration, the Orthodox peoples expect the Western world to be open to accepting the values of the Eastern Christian tradition."
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