DIOCESE OF BERLIN AND GERMANY: January 12, 2007
Statement by the Secretary of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany

The Commemoration of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II

Reports in the mass media, including Russkaya liniya [Russian Line] of January 5, 2007, with a reference to Golos Rossii [Voice of Russia] that “they have already begun commemorating the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia” at the Munich Cathedral may have created the impression that there was hierarchal commemoration. This would be inappropriate and canonically erroneous before the signing of the “Act of Canonical Communion.”

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II was prayerfully commemorated as one who is ill upon receiving news about his ailing health.

At the end of December, Patriarch Alexy was also commemorated along with the Holy Synod in connection with the important decisions to be made in Moscow on the signing of the Act. This petition, intoned during the augmented litany, corresponded with the calling upon of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of all good works, which is commonly done during the sessions of the Synod or Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Petitions composed before the IV All-Diaspora Council on the future God-pleasing organization of the Russian Church Abroad are constantly being read at the Munich Cathedral.

Protopriest Nikolai Artemov
Secretary of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Munich January 10, 2007