Moscow needs about 600 new Orthodox churches - Patriarch Kirill

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes two hundred churches that are to be built by Moscow city authorities in frames of a special program are not enough. "If we take a relative figure that corresponds to the statistics of Baptism (about 80% of ethnically Orthodox population) then to take (Moscow - IF) figure to the average Russian rate of 11 200 people per parish, we need 591 churches more," the Patriarch said on Monday at a special session in Moscow dedicated to the mentioned program.

He reported that, according to a research on churches and people correlation conducted by the Russian Church, Mordovia takes the first place as it has one church for three thousand people. Moscow is the last one in this list as it has one church for 40 thousand people.

The Primate further said that 89,18 per cent of ethnically Orthodox people live in Moscow.

Source: Interfax religion