Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that increasing number of Orthodox churches in Russia is testimony that the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church is something the people want.

“Over the last six years our Church increased by 5,000 churches and 10,000 clergymen, which means that people need the Church’s mission. There could not be such growth in the Church if there were no demand. That is why we feel so special when we place the foundations of new churches,” the patriarch said at the ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the Assumption Cathedral of the Sarov Hermitage, where St. Seraphim of Sarov lived.

According to Patriarch Kirill, this is a testimony to “the faith of our people, their spiritual power, to the vector of spiritual and even social development that connects material prosperity with spiritual growth . . .

Read the full article here: The Russian Church increased by 5,000 churches and 10,000 clerics over the last six years