The Metropolitan of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Kirill
The Metropolitan of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Kirill urged the congregation to abandon rallies and confrontation for the sake of prayer. He said this in his speech at the Holy Trinity parish Church of the city of Irbit, on the occasion of the beginning of the Dormition fast. Excerpts from it published on the website of the Ekaterinburg diocese.
In the beginning of his speech Kirill reminded the audience about the hard times that moved the Russian people. To those he took the time of Troubles in XVII century, the revolt of Yemelyan Pugachev in the eighteenth-m, civil war in the early XX-th, when the “whole Russian land was raging fratricidal confrontation”.
“The Lord be still this storm, sent us a great test — the great Patriotic war, and then the people should be United,” he said.
According to him, citizens should “understand and feel the lessons of history.” “Prayer and fasting is better than any demonstration, protest, confrontation,” concluded Cyril.
Dormition fast is one of the strictest Orthodoxy. Established in honor of the feast of the Dormition of the virgin. Lasts from 14 to 27 August inclusive and ends with the feast of the assumption of the blessed virgin. During lent, believers are supposed to limit themselves in food and treats, in particular, to abandon games and watching TV.