Moscow proposes to Erdogan to allow Orthodox services in the Hagia Sophia Church
If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is truly trying to restore relations with Russia, he should take steps such as allowing Orthodox services at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
Orthodox social activist Kirill Frolov reflects on this in his blog.
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According to him, the return of Christian services to the St. Sophia Cathedral is “a symbol of independence from the United States.”
In the future, Frolov argues, a single pilgrimage route to the shrines of Crimea and Turkey could be created.
“Tourism in Crimea does not contradict tourism in Turkey. What Orthodox Russian does not dream of spending his vacation on a pilgrimage at the walls of Chersonesos, then by fast boat to the shrines of Constantinople, Cappadocia, places where great Orthodox history took place. These shrines need to be restored,” writes Frolov.
He believes that the Russian Orthodox Church, in order to save Orthodoxy, must agree with Erdogan “on the independent spiritual care of millions of Russian tourists” in Turkey. Thus, Frolov believes, the problem of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which supports the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, will be removed.
“It remains to solve the problem of anti-Orthodox, anti-Russian and anti-Turkish actions of an outspoken agent of US influence, Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, who at the Cretan meeting imposed recognition of Western civilization on the Orthodox Churches. And on July 15, the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople made a militantly anti-Orthodox pro-American decision to consider the delusional appeal of the Nazis from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine about “autocephaly of the UOC,” writes Frolov.
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