The Patriarch of Moscow, Alexis II, has reaffirmed the ecumenical commitment and the “full participation” of the Russian Orthodox Church within the World Council of Churches (WCC), but also emphasized the concern for new developments in the ethical field that are being registered in some churches, warning that they “may undermine ecumenical relationships”. So says a press release put out by the World Council of Churches at the end of a series of meetings that the general secretary of the ecumenical organization, pastor Samuel Kobia, had with exponents of Russian Orthodoxy in Moscow from 18 to 24 June. Kobia met Patriarch Alexis II and Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Department of the External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, on Tuesday, 21 June. Both “expressed optimism for the renewed ecumenical perspectives” that have been opened with “the recent developments of the Roman Catholic Church”. It is no accident that the visit of Kobia to Moscow coincided with the presence in the Russian capital of Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the promotion of Christian Unity.
