Russian Patriarch says Protestants straying from Christian tradition

24 June 2008, 17:35

Moscow, June 24, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has expressed concern over what he called the straying of most Protestants from the canons of Christian morality.

"Unfortunately, Protestants increasingly reject the basic moral principles commanded by the Gospel and Apostles," the patriarch said at the Council of Bishops in Moscow on Tuesday.

In 2003, the Russian Orthodox Church suspended relations with the U.S. Episcopal Church after an openly gay priest was ordained bishop. Since the previous Council of Bishops was last held in 2004, cases have increased of "blessing" by the Church of England and several other churches of the Anglican Communion of homosexual unions and persons who openly defy the principles of traditional Evangelical morality," he said.

In 2005, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to suspend relations with the Church of Sweden, which ruled to approve the formal blessing of the so-called "registered partnership" between homosexuals.

In 2007, the Church of Norway decided at its Bishops Council to allow anyone who openly declares his nontraditional sexual orientation to be ordained if any particular bishop wishes so, the Patriarch said.

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