Processions of the Cross to mark Reunification of Russian Church

A many-day procession with the cross from Vladivostok to Moscow to mark the reunification of the Russian Church

Moscow, May 10, Interfax -

Eight long processions with the cross symbolizing the eight rays of the Star of Bethlehem are to be held in Russia on May 17 within the program ‘Under the Star of the Mother of God’.

The aim of this international program organized by the Russian Athonite Society, a Russian national public organization, and the St. Andrew’s Flag Foundation, is to promote the unity of Russian peoples, the website of the Vladivostok diocese has reported.

With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, the marchers will set off from six cities in Russia, namely, Vladivostok, Barnaul, Yakutsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Arkhangelsk, and from the two centers of universal Orthodoxy - Jerusalem and Mount Athos. In a march through Russia, the participants will cover dozens of thousands of kilometers to converge in Moscow.

The action will be launched on May 17, the day of the historic reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church, when the Act of the Canonical Communion between the Church in and outside Russia will be signed in the Church of Christ the Savior.

On May 20, a many-day procession with the cross will start from St. Nicholas’s in Vladivostok in the direction of Moscow. In the Primorye Region, the procession will go through as many as ten cities and villages. The Vladivostok diocese plans to complete the procession on June 11, 2007. After that the route of the procession will go through the Khabarovsk diocese.