© www.rt.comHeads of Eastern/Western Christianity coming together, the world finally got their attention.
Global leaders ought to overcome political dissent and close the ranks in fighting international terrorism as the challenge to mankind at large, the chief foreign spokesman of the Russian Orthodox Church told the media.
The unprecedented meeting of the head of the Church, Patriarch Kirill, with his Roman Catholic counterpart Pope Francis in Havana on February 12 is going to have "far-reaching consequences," the head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion, told TASS in an exclusive interview.
"The word of the pope and the patriarch is addressed to men of all conditions, including political leaders the future of humankind depends upon," the Metropolitan said.
"We expect the message of peace to be heard. That instead of creating various anti-terrorist coalitions, alienated with deep-rooted contradictions and fraught with unpredictable consequences, there would be only one such alliance," he noted.
Metropolitan Hilarion emphasized that
such coalition could not be made up only of politicians. "Spiritual leaders and other people of good will should go into it." The first-ever face-to-face talk between two of the major leaders of the Christian world does not mean that the dialogue has just started, Metropolitan Hilarion stressed. "It means the dialogue has entered a new stage of augmented intensity."
Despite all the existing theological disagreements, there is a clear understanding on both sides that
"the situation in the world urges immediate collaborative action," as it was put in the final joint declaration of the heads of churches. "The meeting was necessary to coordinate our actions in the first place." It was important that leaders of world's two largest Christian churches spoke with a single voice. "So they did," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
Comment: This story is getting a lot of news coverage. If only there was the same amount of ongoing coverage on the NSA's existing abilities to spy on ordinary citizens. The sad thing is that even if Apple wins its case and doesn't have to create the back-door to all its iPhones, it won't change the fact that our security is already severely compromised.
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