Moscow, May 26, 2017
Photo: Pravoslavie.ru It is impossible to imagine the Russian state without the spiritual and historical experience of the Russian Orthodox Church, is what Russian President Vladimir Putin stated yesterday in his speech to the congregation at the Divine Liturgy in Sretensky Monastery. President Putin prayed at the Liturgy that followed the Great Consecration of the new church, which is dedicated to the Resurrection and the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
“Our country, and Russian statehood itself is impossible to imagine without the spiritual and historical experience of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is passed down from generation to generation through pastoral words,” said the President.
In the Russian President’s opinion, the new cathedral in the center of the capital city will become a “bright and magnetic center of religious and enlightenment activity,” and will “facilitate the inculcation in our society of the idea of goodness, mutual respect, and peacemaking.”
Photo: Patriarchia.ru As a gift to the newly-consecrated church, Vladimir Putin presented an eighteenth-century icon of St. John the Forerunner. The icon was placed in the church’s altar.
