New Church Head Elected

Metropolitan Kirill was elected the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia by a Congress of 702 clerics and parishioners on Tuesday, and one of his first public statements came as a bit of a surprise.
The All-Russia Congress convened for three days to elect a successor to Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December last year. Metropolitan Kirill was expected for the position when he was appointed throne-keeper, or acting patriarch. Kirill also worked as the head of Moscow Patriarchy's Foreign Relations Department. The Congress proved Kirill's popularity - he got 508 of 702 votes cast, winning over another contender, Metropolitan Kliment, who was seen as a representative of more conservative movements inside the church. The third contender - Metropolitan Filaret - withdrew his candidacy before the final poll and urged his supporters to vote for Kirill. It is also important that the Congress did not use the right to suggest another candidate or to draw lots as allowed by the rules. Thus the vote became pre-decided - the majority of bishops, monks and parishioners voted for Kirill, whom they saw as the rightful heir to Patriarch Alexy II .
Russian President Dmitry Medve­dev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have sent congratulations to the newly elected Patriarch, indicating that cooperation between the State and the Church will continue and possibly grow. President Medvedev "expressed hope that the dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state in the country's further development and strengthening spiritual and moral values will continue," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Med­vedev's spokeswoman as saying.
62-year old Metropolitan Kirill, born Vladimir Gundyaev, comes from a family of a priest and from early childhood dedicated himself to the church. Very early he started working on the Russian Church's relations with foreign confessions and in 1971 Kirill became Russia's representative in the World Council of Churches - one of the largest ecumenical organizations in the World. In 1975 Kirill was elected to the Central Committee of the Council and in 1976 he became a member of the Russian Synod's commission for Christian unity.
Kirill's work in the field of strengthening the ties with other confessions, especially with Vatican, drew criticism from die-hard orthodox clerics. The standoff reached its peak last year when Archbishop Diomede of Chu­kotka declared an anathema on Kirill and several other top hierarchs including Patriarch Alexy II. However, he was remanded for this move and demoted to a simple monk, which many saw as a favorable development for relations between Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
These hopes, however, suffered a swift setback after one of the Congress members suggested to change the Church charter and to make the Patriarch a "guarantor" of maintaining spiritual values, Kirill said that such an approach was unacceptable and called the initiative "a Catholic heresy." He then praised the unity of the Russian Orthodox church and called for the Congress to resist Catholic and Protestant proselytizing - a word used to describe the spread of foreign confessions on Russian territory.
The Pope did not immediately react to these comments, instead sending congratulations in which he praised Kirill's "efforts to maintain communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue."
The Moscow News addressed Dean Andrey Kurayev, a former spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchy and a preacher and theologist, for comments about the possible development of relations between the Moscow Pat­riarchy and the Vatican. Father Andrey said that in his view the relations would become more complicated, because Kirill was the main driving force behind the ecumenical tendencies in the patriarch.
"The statement at the Congress indicates that from now on Patriarch Kirill will be more oriented on how his words are perceived inside the church, rather than international reaction," Father Andrey said.
Fears of a new schism, hyped up by the ultra-Orthodox opposition statements (Russian news agencies quoted some supporters of the demoted archbishop Diomede as saying that Kirill's election to the Patriarch's throne would lead to a nuclear war - the God's punishment for ignoring the abovementioned anathema), were avoided. "There are people who consider themselves to be super-orthodox, they protest against any Patriarch. In my opinion, it will be better if such people simply leave our church," Father Andrew said. "The vote at the Congress was very consolidated and this is an indication that any schism inside the church is impossible," he added.