Moscow Patriarchate Expands in to Communist Cuba

[尼古拉前执事]

Construction of First Orthodox Church in Cuba Begins
http://www.christianpost.com/dbase/amer ... tion/1.htm
Monday, Nov. 15, 2004 Posted: 2:32:21PM EST

Religious figures and Cuban government officials on Sunday laid down the first stone of what will become the first-ever Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) on the island nation of Cuba. According to the head of ROC’s foreign relations department, the church will constitute "a monument to Cuban-Russian friendship."

"The past can reunite with the present, with the result being a common future," Metropolitan Kirill told the Associated Press, alluding to the past alliance between Cuba and Russia during the Cold War.

Sunday's event, attended by about 300 people, began with a two-hour mass in the old Roman Catholic Convent of San Francisco in Habana Vieja, followed by a procession through the streets of the city's historic district.

At the empty plot that will house the new church, Kirill filled a deep hole with religious artifacts, and covered the opening with the first symbolic stone, followed by cement and more stones.

According to AP, Kirill, who traveled from Moscow to Cuba for the consecration, the church would also pay homage to the thousands of Russian workers, soldiers and technicians who cooperated with Cuba for three decades before the fall of the Soviet Union.

Though it was officially atheist after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, Cuba has since then established better relationships with the church reaching a climax in January 1998 with the historic visit of Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II. The Cuban state government had also removed references to atheism in the constitution more than a decade ago.

Currently, there are an estimated 8,000 Orthodox Christians in Havana. The Russian Orthodox Church, the largest of the world's eastern Orthodox communions, has approximately 80 million followers in Russia and the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The new Russian Orthodox Church, also being financed by the Cuban government, is expected to open its doors in about a year.

[尼古拉前执事]

Cuban state finances Russian church
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 ... 102418B212
November 15 2004 at 02:04AM
By Andrea Rodiguez

Havana - After a procession through the streets of colonial Old Havana, religious figures and Cuban government officials on Sunday have laid down the first stone of what will become the island's first-ever Russian Orthodox church.

The church will constitute "a monument to Cuban-Russian friendship," said Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign relations department who traveled to Cuba from Moscow for the consecration.

The church will also pay homage to the thousands of Russian workers, soldiers and technicians who co-operated with communist Cuba for three "glorious" decades before the fall of the Soviet Union, he said.

'Russia will again be a great power that supports and defends its friends'
"The past can re-unite with the present, with the result being a common future," Metropolitan Kirill said. "Russia will again be a great power that supports and defends its friends."

Cuba was a strategic Soviet ally in America's backyard during the Cold War. Under an ideological and economic alliance that lasted for three decades, Cuba once received about 20 percent of its gross national product from Soviet subsidies.

Sunday's event began in the old Roman Catholic Convent of San Francisco in Old Havana with a two-hour Mass attended by about 300 people, primarily Eastern Europeans living in Cuba.

Havana's city historian, Eusebio Leal, and Caridad Diego, director of religious affairs for Cuba's Communist Party, sat in the front row of the church. Leal had presented the church project to Patriarch Alexy II for authorisation during a visit to Moscow at the end of October.

Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, the Vatican's ambassador to Cuba, and several diplomats also were present.

'This is part of our culture, of our fatherland, of our soul'
After the service, Metropolitan Kirill led a procession carrying Russian Orthodox crosses and flags on Havana's Avenida del Puerto to the empty plot of land that will house the new church.

"This is part of our culture, of our fatherland, of our soul," Tania Profet, a Russian citizen living in Cuba for 38 years, said as she followed the procession.

At the plot, Metropolitan Kirill filled a deep hole with religious artifacts then covered the opening with the first symbolic stone, followed by cement and more stones.

While Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, the government removed references to atheism in the constitution more than a decade ago and allowed religious believers to join the Communist Party.

Relations between churches and the Cuban state climaxed in January 1998, with the historic visit of Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II.

In January 2004, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, came to Cuba to consecrate a different cathedral built by the communist government.

The new Russian Orthodox church, also being financed by the Cuban government, is expected to open its doors in about a year. - Sapa-AP

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Another "new springtime" update on the MP...Monsignor Kirill.

[Natasha]

Am I the only one who finds this very strange? First the Greek church and now this? I don't get it....

[John Haluska]

Sergianism is alive and well and is now active in Cuba.

John