"Komsomolskaya Pravda": "Patriarch Kirill: "Not to Become Embittered and Not to Grumble""
Easter service was celebrated at the Christ the Savoir Cathedral on Sunday night.
The first politician to show up at the church was Yuri Luzhkov. He adjusted the floor mat and, like a good housekeeper, ran his hand over the choir parapet at the altar as if to wipe off the dust although everything inside the church was spick and span.
That year Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia led the Easter service as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time.
His Holiness lit the candles from the Blessed Fire, which burns every year thanks to the prayers of thousands of Orthodox believers on Holy Saturday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and handed over the flame to thousands of believers gathered at the Church that evening.
The Patriarch's midnight Easter service was attended by Dmitry Medvedev with wife Svetlana and Vladimir Putin. The President and the Prime Minister were in an upbeat mood, they smiled a lot and chatted. The Patriarch congratulated them on the Resurrection of Christ. Mr Medvedev presented His Holiness with the icon of Our Lady "Sweet Kiss" intended for the Russian Army. (The icon will shortly be taken on a tour of Russian military units.) Mr Putin gave him white roses. The Patriarch gave his guests painted Easter eggs.
Addressing those gathered the head of the Russian Orthodox Church called on them never to become embittered and never to grumble in adversity because "the resurrection of Christ marked the victory over all evil":
"Christ has defeated Hell. If we face evil it should not spiritually destroy us, embitter us and obscure our vision of the genuine perspective in life".
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The Gospel was read in 18 languages.
The Patriarch, the archbishops and the clergy on that night made a little bit of history by reciting several stanzas from the Gospel according to St John in 18 languages, including Aramaic and Chinese. Previously the service was conducted in Church Slavonic, Russian, Latin or Greek.
"Reading the Gospel in this way is the personal initiative of Patriarch Kirill, says Father Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's synodic department on public relations. Clergymen who know these languages had been invited. That stresses the universal character of Orthodoxy and attests to its 20th century history."
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By the way
Why was Lyudmila Putin absent from the Christ the Saviour Cathedral?
The Prime Minister's wife was out of town on that day. Lyudmila and Vladimir Putin congratulated each other on the holiday by phone, the Prime Minister's press spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday.
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250,000 Muscovites celebrated Easter
This is the number of believers who attended Easter services and processions with the cross that marched through the capital over the weekend.
Security was provided by 7,200 police, Interior Ministry troops, OMON and vigilantes.
By Alexander Gamov
