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Russian Orthodox leaders eye youth subculture nightclubs

Russian Orthodox Christians must resist the temptation to live exclusively within their own subculture and need to reach out to other groups, especially youth, Moscow Patriarch Kirill I, has said, reports Ecumenical News International.

Kirill said in Moscow at a traditional meeting with journalists in advance of the Orthodox celebration of Easter on 19 April, "If we say that churchliness and this subculture are ... and the same thing then we exclude bearers of other subcultures, first of all youth, from Orthodoxy."

And the Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, appointed by the Synod of Bishops to lead a newly-created Department of Interrelations of Church and Society, caused waves in the Russian media and blogosphere by saying, "To my mind, nightclubs are not just necessarily debauchery, drunkenness, narcotics and striptease." He told Ecumenical News International in a telephone interview from Moscow, "There is a rather good tradition of young people talking late into the night. I remember when I was 14 or 15! We would gather with a small number of Christians in kitchens or on the street and talk about God and the fate of Russia."

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TAGS: Russia Orthodox Christians Patriarch Kirill I celebration of Easter Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin nightclubs

[04/21/2009]

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