Grand Funeral for Grand Patriarch. Ecumenical Notes By Uncle Monty.

Grand Funeral for Grand Patriarch.

By Dmitry Solovyov and Oleg Shchedrov.

Ecumenical Notes By Uncle Monty.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy

II was buried on Tuesday after a long and elaborate funeral

ceremony at which he was praised for reviving the nation's

Christian faith after decades of communist rule. State broad-

casters canceled normal programing to broadcast live the

half-day ceremony for Alexiy, who died on Friday aged 79

after 18 years leading the world's biggest Orthodox church.
Thousands of ordinary Russians lined the streets of Moscow

to see the coffin pass as bells tolled. Some mourners wept.

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President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir

Putin, in black suits and black ties, attended the funeral. Both

kissed Alexiys' robed body on a catafalque surrounded by white

roses in the heart of Moscow's gold-domed Christ the Saviour

Cathedral. "He spoke in the language of eternity, he under-

stood that only love could unite people," the church's interim

leader, Metropolitan Kirill, said in a speech delivered beside

the coffin, which was draped in a green, red and white shroud.

Kirill, 62, was helped away by aides at one point during the

lengthy ceremony. The Church said he was in good health and

had not fainted, and he subsequently rejoined the funeral.

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Orthodox patriarchs and metropolitans (senior bishops)

from Russia and abroad stood in the vast cathedral as

priests chanted the liturgy, followed by funeral rites. Arch-

priest Dimitry Smirnov, head of the Patriarchy's department

for cooperation with the army and law enforcement forces,

praised Alixiy's role in the church's revival after the Soviet

Union collapsed in 1991. "The number of churches multi-

plied to 30,000 and the number of monasteries to 700

from 18 (under Alexiy)," he said. "This is a fantastic

number, so fantastic it is difficult to believe, but it is true."

Alexiy's opponents say he allowed the church to become a

junior partner of the Kremlin when Putin was president,

and the Patriarch failed to shake off allegations he worked

as an informer for the Soviet KGB. The church denied this.
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Christ The Saviour Cathedral

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ALEXIY INTERRED
The presidents of Moscow's close allies Belarus, Armenia

and Serbia, at least 11 Russian cabinet ministers, top Kremlin

officials and leading businessmen also attended the funeral.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council

for Christian Unity, led a delegation from Rome, with whom

the Russian Church has at times had strained relations.

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Throughout the funeral, the coffin lay in the center of the

cathedral, which was rebuilt in the 1990s after being de-

stroyed by Soviet leader Josef Stalin. At the catafalque's

head stood a floral display depicting the Orthodox cross

with its extra two bars.
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As the ceremony ended, top clergy said prayers for Alexiy's

soul and lined up to file past the coffin and kiss him farewell.
The coffin was carried out of the cathedral over a path of

white roses, said to be his favorite flower.

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A black hearse drove the body in a convoy escorted by

police through the cold, rainy streets to the 18th-century

Epiphany Cathedral, where Alexiy was laid to rest in a

private ceremony. "I feel today that a great saintly man

has left us. I hope he will pray for Russia when in heaven.

I attended his sermons and he was such an approachable

and simple man in his everyday life," pensioner Olga

Larchenko said.

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Kirill, whose official title is Metropolitan of Smolensk

and Kaliningrad, was chosen by a 12-man Holy Synod

of top church leaders as interim leader last Saturday.
The Holy Synod will on Wednesday announce a date

for convening the Local Council, a body of the

Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy and laity

which will choose a new Patriarch.
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Grand Metropolitan Kirill.

(Reuter writing by Michael Stott and Guy

Faulconbridge; editing by Timothy Heritage)

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:: Ecumenical Notes By Uncle Monty ::

I have seen three different spelling of the

late Patriarch's name of Alexei or Alexiy or

Alexye. I do not know which is the correct

spelling of his formal religious name. I am un-

aware also, at this time, if the See of Canterbury

sent a funeral delegation on behalf of the Anglican

Church of England to the Grand Patriarch's burial

service at Moscow. I would very much hope so.

At this point, I assume His Grace, Archbishop

Rowan Williams of Canterbury, either attended

in person or was represented at the funeral.

I have thus far seen no secular press reports

of any formal Anglican presence at such an

important ecumenical and funeral event.

Truly, Uncle Monty.

+10th Day of Advent, 2oo8.
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