Belarus (bbabo.net), - The expression “Russian world” refers not only to the population of Russia, but also to Ukraine, Belarus and all of “historical Russia”. This was announced today, on October 18, by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill after the liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

Addressing the faithful with a sermon on the feast of the Cathedral of the Moscow Hierarchs, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church called on everyone “to realize the responsibility for maintaining the spiritual unity of the Russian world, thanks to which lasting peace could be established in the entire region.

“I boldly pronounce the words “Russian world” within these walls, although I know that some forces in Ukraine demonize these words. But we do not use this in the sense that "Russian" means only a part of historical Russia, which corresponds to the Russian Federation. We use this word in the same sense as the chronicler Nestor used it, speaking of "where the Russian land came from." Not Russian, not Ukrainian, not Belarusian - "where did the Russian land come from." This is the sense in which we use this word – with full responsibility, inner peace and confidence in the correctness of our position,” the patriarch said.

Vladyka urged the clergy and believers to pray "for the entire Russian land, for the peoples that inhabit this land, for overcoming disagreements, and even more so for an end to internecine strife." As the patriarch emphasized, in the space of historical Russia - in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - there lives "a single people - the people of Holy Russia."

The liturgy was attended by Metropolitan Ioanniky of Montenegro and Primorye and other representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who are on a visit to Russia this week.

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