Metropolitan Illarion Alfeev on “models of secularism”

April 24, 2012 Met. Hilarion (Alfeev), speaking at VGBIL, reflected on the role of the Church in modern Russia.

In his opinion, bridge the gap between the "Church and intelligentsia, between the Church and secular society, between the Church and the world culture" is possible through awareness that "the Church is an integral part of society, and society is part of the Church."

Talking about relationships Church and state, he proposed to separate "secularism, which characteristic of modern secular society, where the Church is separated from state" (but not "crowded out of public space") from "militant secularism, which is essentially an anti-church and anti-Christian phenomenon” (because it is he who “is trying to expel Christianity from public life and insists that religion should be a private matter for individuals. Metropolitan I am convinced that at present “the number of problems that the state cannot decide without the participation of the Church" - that is why in Russia speech can go only about the first model.

Sources

• Speech by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk at the All-Russian Library for Foreign Literature // Official website of the Moscow Patriarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. 2012. April 25.