29 августа 2014 - HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH KIRILL’S CONDOLENCE OVER DEMISE OF ARCHBISHOP LONGIN OF KLIN

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia expressed his condolences over the death of Archbishop Longil of Klin, Patriarchal vicar, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany.

His Eminence Feofan, Archbishop of Berlin and Germany

Clergy and flock of the German diocese

Relatives and friends of the late Archbishop Longin of Klin

Your Eminence, All-Honourable Fathers, Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I have been deeply grieved to learn about the demise of Archbishop Longil of Klin, Patriarchal vicar, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany.

I express my sincere condolences to Your Eminence, to the clergy and flock of the diocese, and to relatives and friends of the late archpastor.

The death of Vladyka Longin has been a bereavement for the Russian Orthodox Church and for me personally, as we were tied by bonds of warm friendship for many decades. We had one spiritual father – the late Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad and Novgorod. It was at his hands that we took monastic vows and were ordained that same year. It was a time of hard ordeals for our Church, which required courage of those who decided to devote his or her life to serving God and people.

I knew Vladyka Longin for many years and can testify that he always strived to perform his service with zealousness and responsibly carried out all kinds of obedience, with which the supreme authority of our Church charged him.

While a cleric and later rector of the Patriarchal community of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God in Helsinki, Father Longin did much to maintain the spiritual and canonical ties of that parish with the Patriarchal See.

In the years that followed he performed his ministry in Germany where he was a dean of the Diocese of Düsseldorf of the Exarchate of Central Europe and enlivened the parish life there considerably. Having become a bishop, Vladyka Longin worthily represented our Church in her relationships with governmental and public organizations and other Christian confessions in Germany. In the 1990s, a hard time for our county’s economy, he made a great contribution to the gathering and delivering of humanitarian aid which our Church distributed among needy people. The late archpastor always took an active part in the life of the Mother-Church and took to his heart what was going on in our country.

The Lord visited Vladyka Longin by striking him with a deadly disease which he endured with Christian humility and obedience to the will of God. In spite of the illness, the late hierarch continued to work hard, was in close contact with me on various issues important for the Church, and regularly celebrated the Divine Services, deriving from them spiritual strength and finding in them consolation.

The archpastor’s decades-long work was successful and fruitful. He won sincere love of the clergy, his flock and spiritual children.

I would like to express my special appreciation and support to those who were near the suffering hierarch until his death.

Now, paying last tribute to him, I kiss in my mind the late archpastor and pray for the repose of the soul of the newly deceased Archbishop Longin in the dwellings of the righteous.

I believe that, in reward for his decades-long zealous work in the church field, he will be vouchsafed to hear the yearned-for voice, saying, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Mt 25:21).

With love in Christ,

+KIRILL

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA