Patriarch Kirill prayed in the Kremlin for the country, rulers and bishops

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill performed on the eve of the Liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in honor of Metropolitan's Memorial Day, killed by Ivan the Terrible for the exposure of his lawlessness. The metropolitan, having passed away from life "outcast and slandered", was later counted on the face of saints.

“An example of St. Philip clearly showed all the people that the Church, being a great patriotic force, serving their people, spiritually towering him and being his conscience, at times when God really tramples, is obliged to expose a lie,” the patriarch’s words, who he said on a sermon in the temple, quoted.

At the same time, noted the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, "the word of the Church is neither political nor polemic." “The church does not argue with anyone, it reveals the moral gospel ideal, and it can and should say when this ideal is violated with the danger to the whole people,” the Patriarch emphasized. “So far, the church is publicly or secret, depending on historical circumstances and opportunities, asserts God's truth, there is a moral measure in the life of the people,” he said, recalling that “even in difficult times of the God -fee in the 20th century, the Church carried its testimony.” “All the same without entering into a polemic, not being a political opposition; humbly, with the mouth of her priests and bishops, she proclaimed a moral Christian ideal, God's truth, which was so different from the proclaimed ideology,” the head of the Russian Church noted.

He called for "that the moral Christian ideal preached by the Church always lives in our people, helping people to distinguish good from evil in our crafty age, when evil is dressed in rizes good and seeks to mislead." “We pray to the saint Philip and those who are standing at our Church today - for the episcopate, so that St. Philip is a great and strong example for all of us, helping to understand that the proclamation of God's truth is always risky, but this is a matter that the church is obliged to do, remaining faithful to the Lord and the Savior himself.