MOSCOW—Despite significant theological differences, Baptists and the Russian Orthodox Church appear to share views on some moral issues, the primate of the Russian church told Baptist representatives—including Baptist World Alliance president John Upton—March 29.
The meeting with Kirill I, patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, and other church leaders was held at his working residence in Moscow. Joining Upton, who also is executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, were Hans Guderian, a German Baptist pastor who serves as president of the European Baptist Federation, and Baptist leaders from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Meeting with Patriarch Kirill I were Hans Guderian (left), president of the European Baptist Federation, and BWA president John Upton (third from left). (Photo courtesy of Russian Orthodox Church department for external affairs)
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A press release from the church’s department for external relations reported that Patriarch Kirill “noted with satisfaction that despite significant theological differences, today the position of the Russian Orthodox Church and the position of Baptist communities appear close on a variety of basic anthropological issues.”
Upton, the release reported, thanked the patriarch “for the firm testimony on unalterable truths which the Russian Orthodox Church bears in Russia and beyond its borders. He noted in addition that in a world in which ‘fundamental principles are subjected to erosion to the extent that even absolute truths become relative,’ Baptist congregations as well as the Orthodox Church aspire to return to contemporary society the trusted interpretations of good and evil, of Christian hope and the traditional understanding of family while attempting in every possible way to resist the proliferation of abortion and various social afflictions.”
The representatives also exchanged views about “disturbing tendencies directed towards removing Christian values and religious symbols from the life of contemporary society.”
Though not directly related, the Moscow visit coincides with an ongoing conversation between the Baptist World Alliance and Orthodox Christians. Last fall a three-person BWA team held exploratory talks in Crete with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople—widely regarded as the spiritual head of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians—which could lead to formal dialogue between Baptists and Orthodox Christians internationally.
Participants left Crete with an understanding that the Ecumenical Patriarch would examine a proposal for formal dialogue developed there and determine whether to remit it to the world’s Orthodox churches to secure their participation, said Steve Harmon, adjunct professor of Christian theology at the Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity in Boiling Springs, N.C., who was a member of the BWA team. A decision is expected this spring.
The Baptist World Alliance has since its inception engaged in conversations with other Christian groups as part of an assignment to improve understanding and cooperation between Baptists and other faith communities.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.