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Moscow Patriarch to address upper house of parliament on family issues

Participants in the house readings will pay particular attention to adoptive motherhood

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill ITAR-TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill

© ITAR-TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

MOSCOW, January 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Members of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russian parliament, and hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, are meeting Tuesday to discuss issues of a contemporary family and ethical parenting in the format of the so-called ‘parliamentary rendezvous’ timed for the 22nd International Christmas Readings — a major conference on social, educational, and theological issues the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church hold at the beginning of every year.

For the first time over 20 years that have elapsed since the establishment of the Federation Council, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill will attend the conference. He will address members of the house with a welcome speech and will then answer their questions.

“The (Christmas) readings scheduled for January 28 will become a truly momentous event for members of the house and they regard it with lofty aspirations,” Zinaida Dragunkina, the chairperson of the Federation Council’s committee for science, education, culture, and information policies said in connection with the meeting.

Participants in the house readings will pay particular attention to adoptive motherhood.

“Our Christmas meetings will focus on the problems of man, not on politics, and the Russian family and traditional family values, as well as the protection of children,” Dragunkina said.

In addition, several roundtables and workshops will be held in the Federation Council and in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. The main issues that have been already entered in the agendas include prevention of extremism at general schools, the status of fellow-countrymen living abroad, juvenile justice, relations between the Church and museums, and restoration of historical and cultural monuments.

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