MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Friday he plans to visit churches in the Middle East within the next two years.
"Within the next two years I would like to visit the Middle East, the Alexandrian and Antiochian patriarchates and the Jerusalem Church, who have been serving the region of North Africa for 2,000 years," Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said at a meeting with Arab ambassadors in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.
The Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem are all Greek Orthodox.
The patriarch also intends to meet with state and spiritual leaders from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories to discuss issues of mutual interest.
"Settling inter-civilization challenges, counteracting extremism in all its forms can be built only on the basis of support for the moral foundation of human life," Kirill said.
"Values should hold society back from egoism and consumerism, from eradicating life's spiritual dimension for the sake of increasing levels of consumption," he said.
Patriarch Kirill also thanked Arab countries for their contribution to a Moscow Patriarchate project to build churches on their territories.
Kirill, seen as a liberal in the traditionalist Russian Orthodox Church, was crowned as Russia's new church leader on February 1. He replaced Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December at the age of 79. Alexy led a revival of faith in Russia following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.
