VZCZCXRO3368
OO RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #1876/01 2031141
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221141Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4317
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 0288
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 2233
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 001876 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR KIRF SOCI RS
SUBJECT: ROC ADVOCATES CREATION OF AN INTER-RELIGIOUS 
COUNCIL IN UNESCO 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) External 
Church Relations Chairman Archbishop Hilarion advocated to 
the Ambassador for interfaith dialogue through the creation 
of an Inter-Religious Council within UNESCO and the 
strengthening of inter-Orthodox and inter-Christian 
relationships.  Hilarion explained these foreign policy 
priorities of the ROC included strengthening the ROC's 
relationship with the Patriarch of Constantinople, working 
with the Catholic Church and reaching out to help organize 
the ROC's global diasporas.  Hilarion also argued that 
Russia's demographic problem was a spiritual rather than 
economic concern.  End Summary. 
 
ROC Advocates Creation of UNESCO Inter-Religious Council 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Archbishop Hilarion 
Alfeyev, Chairman of the ROC Department for External Church 
Relations (DECR), hosted Ambassador on July 20, 2009 at his 
office in Moscow.  Accompanying the Archbishop was the Deputy 
Chairman of the DECR, Father Philip.  Following the recent 
July 6-8 US-Russia Presidential Summit, which included a 
meeting between President Obama and ROC Patriarch Kirill, the 
Archbishop commented on the importance of the ROC to 
strengthen international interfaith dialogue.  He explained 
the ROC wanted to strengthen not only inter-Orthodox 
relationships but also inter-Christian and non-Christian 
relationships.  Specifically, the Archbishop hopes to enhance 
these relationships through an Inter-Religious Council the 
ROC plans to create in dialogue with the United Nations 
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Hilarion and Father Philip said that the ROC would 
participate in a meeting of Religious leaders from multiple 
faiths in Moscow on July 21 in preparation for a meeting on 
July 22 with the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura. 
Patriarch Kirill will participate in both meetings.  RF 
President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Director-General Matsuura 
and the religious leaders on July 21.  The ROC wants to 
create an Inter-Religious Council composed of leaders from 
various faiths to include ROC, Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, 
Jewish and Buddhism, and hopefully create a permanent 
secretariat in the council at UNESCO.  Hilarion envisioned 
that the council would propose ideas to create permanent 
mechanisms for inter-faith dialogue.  He stressed, however, 
the council should provide concrete results and not just 
declarations, and concentrate on a broad range of global 
issues such as religious defamation, tolerance, education, 
holy places and pilgrimage sites. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The religious leaders involved beyond the ROC 
include President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation 
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, 
Caucasus Moslems Clerical Office head Sheikh-ul-Islam Allah 
Shukur Pashazade of Azerbaijan, head of the department for 
relations with foreign countries and other Christian 
confessions of the Evangelical Church of Germany Bishop 
Martin Schindehutte, the Holy See official representative to 
Russia, Archbishop Antonio Menini, and Deputy 
Secretary-General of the World Islamic League Mohammad Hayat 
of Saudi Arabia.  According to the Archbishop, Saudi Arabia 
is very involved in the initiative for the Inter-Religious 
Council.  He also elaborated that eventually he hoped the 
leaders would broaden the group to consist of approximately 
25 to 30 members representing multiple faiths. 
 
Patriarch of Constantinople and Inter-Orthodox Relationships 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  As chairman of the DECR, Hilarion explained that 
along with interfaith relations, the primary task of the 
DECR's foreign policy was to improve relations within the 
Orthodox churches.  A priority among these remains the ROC 
relationship with the Patriarch of Constantinople.  Hilarion 
hoped to see the relationship with Constantinople move from a 
"situation of confrontation to one of cooperation and mutual 
trust."  During the recent meetings between Patriarch Kirill 
and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople 
and the whole of Greek Orthodox Church, Kirill offered 
suggestions to Bartholomew to help the situation for the 
Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The Archbishop stated the Greek Orthodox Church in 
Turkey had restrained its activities and faced a shrinking 
congregation.  Bartholomew wants to reopen theological 
schools, restore churches and improve places of pilgrimage. 
Hilarion believed the ROC could help Bartholomew accomplish 
 
MOSCOW 00001876  002 OF 003 
 
 
these goals.  Kirill met with the Turkish Prime Minister in 
Ankara following his meetings with Bartholomew in early July 
2009 and expressed these concerns.  The Archbishop was also 
concerned about the Greek Orthodox Church's shrinking 
pastoral community and the large number of Russians living in 
and visiting Turkey.  According to Hilarion, many of these 
Russians are Orthodox and would welcome opportunities for 
worship in Turkey.  He assured the Ambassador, however, that 
the ROC would not build any structures of its own in Turkey. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Beyond the relationship with Constantinople, 
Hilarion was not overly optimistic about full reconciliation 
of the Orthodox churches.  He referred to the recent 
inter-Orthodox meeting in Switzerland in June 2009 where it 
was discussed how to organize better Orthodox diasporas and 
increase unity among the various Orthodox groups around the 
world.  He stated that a key issue of the ROC on diasporas 
and a main difference with the Ecumenical Patriarch was that 
the ROC still holds to its own diasporas, some of which are 
centuries old, while the Ecumenical Patriarch believed they 
belong to him.  Hilarion thought it would be impossible to 
bring all the diasporas automatically into one church. 
Instead, he offered his vision of one Orthodox Church within 
a city but with five or more Bishops each representing 
distinct ethnic or linguistic groups.  The Archbishop 
believed the same was possible for the Orthodox churches in 
the United States.  Specifically, he hoped for the formation 
of a single Orthodox Church in the United States embracing 
all separate Orthodox jurisdictions with Bishops responsible 
for ethnically and linguistically distinguished 
congregations. 
 
Inter-Christian Relationships 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The Archbishop also stated that inter-Christian 
relationships could be strengthened but emphasized more of 
the ROC's relationship with the Catholic Church than with 
Protestant churches.  Instead of concentrating on 
differences, he believed the ROC could work with the Catholic 
Church to work against common challenges such as militant 
secularism and violent Islam.  Hilarion felt the solution 
with ROC's relationship with Protestant churches was much 
less obvious.  He stated there were significant differences 
on a theological level and moral teachings between the ROC 
and Protestant churches, and believed that some Protestant 
teachings were a strong liberalization of moral teachings. 
He did not think the ROC and the Protestant churches could 
speak with a common voice. 
 
Russia's Demographic Problem 
---------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  To fight Russia's demographic problem, Hilarion 
stated, was a problem that could not be solved exclusively by 
the state or the church but would require cooperation.  He 
believed that only the church could provide the necessary 
teachings of the meaning and importance of family to help 
solve the problem.  He argued that Russia's demographic 
problem was not economic but spiritual because the meaning of 
family was lost through secularism and materialism.  Hilarion 
believed modern families no longer viewed a large family as a 
blessing.  Further, he did not believe Russia's Soviet 
history and mentality had a greater effect on the demographic 
problem, because other countries that did not live through a 
Soviet-like regime were experiencing similar problems. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Comment.  Archbishop Hilarion has the position, 
influence and charisma to remain a strong leader of the ROC 
and perhaps eventual successor to Patriarch Kirill.  As 
Kirill's hand-picked replacement as DECR Chairman, Hilarion 
is likely to stay closely in step with Kirill in policies and 
opinions.  Hilarion is a young, energetic, talented and 
worldly leader within the ROC, not unlike his mentor Kirill. 
He speaks fluent English, holds two doctoral degrees from 
Oxford and St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris and has a 
good relationship with the ROC in America -- including a 
stint delivering lectures in Alaska.  With this impressive 
background, Hilarion will at a minimum serve as an appealing 
international face of the ROC.  Hilarion appeared sincere 
about creating interfaith dialogue and improving 
inter-Orthodox and inter-Christian relationships, but clearly 
not to the detriment of ROC authority.  In fact, Hilarion 
likely sees the Inter-Religious Council and outreach to the 
 
MOSCOW 00001876  003 OF 003 
 
 
diasporas as an opportunity to expand ROC authority and 
influence.  End Comment. 
BEYRLE