Moscow, Russia - The number of Orthodox churches in Russia has increased four times for the last twenty years, says Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.
He gave statistics in his interview to Paris Match published Thursday. There were only 6800 Orthodox churches and 18 monasteries in the country in 1986. They are 27,000 and 680 respectively. The number of priests and the monastics has increased in the same proportion. There are 1,700 priests and deacons in Moscow, Alexy II noted.
He said the Church had differences with the official authorities, for instance, in the matter of religious instructions in school. Alexy II called the normalizations of relations between the Church and the state in Russia and in the CIS countries ‘a major achievement of the last fifteen years.’ ‘The Church and the state have overcome alienation of the past and assist each other at all levels.’
Commenting on his high status in the country (the Patriarch occupies the fifth official place after the President, prime minister and two speakers of the Parliament), Alexy II called it a sign of respect not for him, ‘but for the Church with a thousand-year history, the oldest institution of civil society for all its actions. This is an esteem for the Orthodox faith, for our brothers and sisters.’