Most recent news | Released Wednesday, December 10, 2008
RUSSIAN PATRIARCH ALEXY II DIES IN MOSCOW
Catholicos Karekin II attends funeral; Abp. Barsamian expresses condolences
The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) was saddened by the news of the passing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Alexy died on December 5, in his residence outside of Moscow. He was 79.
On December 8, His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, departed from Holy Etchmiadzin in the Republic of Armenia to attend the funeral of Patriarch Alexy in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Accompanying Catholicos Karekin was Archbishop Grigoris Bouniatian, Primate of the Ukraine; Archbishop Barkev Martirossian, Primate of Artsakh; and Archbishop Yeznik Petrosian, head of Etchmiadzin’s Department of Inter-Church Relations. Meeting the delegation in Moscow was Bishop Yezras Nersissian, Primate of Russia (headquartered in Moscow), and Bishop Movses Movsesyan, Primate of Southern Russia.
The President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, also traveled to Moscow to attend the December 9 funeral.
In New York City, leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States gathered at the city’s St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Cathedral on the evening of December 5, for a solemn memorial service.
Bishop Mercurius of Zaraisk, administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes of the U.S.A., presided over the service of prayer (called the panikhida) for the departed Patriarch Alexy.
Fr. Mardiros Chevian, dean of New York’s St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, represented the Eastern Diocese and its Primate, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, at the memorial service. In a letter of condolence which Fr. Chevian presented to Bishop Mercurius, Archbishop Barsamian recalled Patriarch Alexy’s 2001 visit to Armenia, and the role Patriarch Alexy played in promoting a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.
“Patriarch Alexy took on the burdens of leading his church at a critical moment for the Russian people, the Orthodox churches, and for the world generally. At the time, a dark night for his people was finally dispersing, and a new dawn beckoned—one filled with hope and promise, but also uncertainty and potential danger. Today, from the vantage of nearly twenty years, it is hard to imagine anyone else having taken up that difficult role, and guiding his people with the same combination of fatherly love and sober conviction,” wrote Archbishop Barsamian.
Alexy became the leader of the Russian church in 1990, as Soviet communism was loosening its grip, and the long dormant religious life of the country was reasserting itself. His pontificate saw the final demise of the Soviet system, the restitution of many of the church’s holy places, and a swelling of the ranks of the faithful. It was during Alexy’s tenure that a longstanding breach in the church was healed, reuniting the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church with the U.S.-based Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia—which had split off in 1927 after the Moscow church had declared loyalty to Russia’s communist government.
Patriarch Alexy was considered a strong national figure and promoted the distinctively Russian character of his church. He refused to meet with Pope John Paul II, the late head of the Roman Catholic Church, on the grounds that the Catholic Church was seeking converts among the Russian faithful. But he held respectfully cordial relations with the Armenian Church, meeting several times with the present Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II, and traveling to Armenia itself in 2001, to honor the 1700th anniversary of Armenia’s conversion to Christianity.
Catholicos Karekin II meets with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II in Moscow, in 2000.
Abp. Barsamian met with the late Patriarch Alexy II during a 1999 excursion to Russia with the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.