Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill Prays For Rain As Wildfires Spread
Wildfires are dangerously out of control in Russia, due to the hottest temperatures since records began 130 years ago.
Things have become so dire that the Orthodox Russian Patriarch Kirill has today called for prayer for rain:
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill asked Russians to pray for rain on Sunday as wildfires raged across the European parts of the vast country, sweltering since June in an unprecedented heat wave.
“Grief has come to our nation, human lives have been lost, hundreds have lost shelter and thousands have been left without sustenance, including many children,” national media quoted Patriarch Kirill as saying in a prayer during a visit to the Nizhny Novgorod region, one of the worst hit by fires.
“I call upon everyone to unite in a prayer for rain to descend on our earth.”
Thick smoke from nearby forest fires blanketed a magnificent monastery where Kirill, clad in a richly embroidered gold cloak, conducted an outdoor liturgy glorifying a Russian saint, Russia’s NTV channel showed.
The mainly elderly worshippers stood on their knees as Kirill prayed for rain. “This (fires) is punishment sent to us for sins,” a woman worshipper told NTV.
“We should do only good deeds and pray.”
Tags: News
August 1st, 2010 at 8:31 pm
As a non-Christian I find this bizarre. It will rain in due course, with or without prayer. Does that mean that those praying for rain then assume their prayers have been answered? If it does not rain in time to stop the wildfires before further major destruction, do they then believe that their sins are still too great for God to answer their prayers?
Do other Christains find this kind of intercessionary prayer odd?
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:41 am
Jim,
As Christians, we are called to pray unceasingly. Please have some compassion for the people that have died, rather than question the Patriarch’s call to prayer.
August 3rd, 2010 at 12:40 am
Please ask patriarch Kirill where was he when his flock was on fire? Where was he? He was in Ukraine stirring the animosity between Ukrainians.
He was propagating the colonialist idea of “russkij mir”. Russkij mir in Ukraine? Give me a break and give Ukrainians a break. They are not hurting for religious and spiritual leaders.
Stop looking over the fence at the green grass in Ukraine when your own is on fire, dickhead!