The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has instructed the divine services commission to consider introducing a special prayer for people who committed suicide, the Church's top administration body, the Bishops Council, said.
The Church normally does not pray for sane people who deliberately killed themselves thus rejecting God's Providence; it considers suicide the gravest sin because a person who committed it cannot reverse or repent it and "dies forever." However, the suicides' relatives or friends can pray for them privately.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia voiced the proposal on Wednesday, on the first day of the three-day Bishops Council that gathered in downtown Moscow's magnificent Christ the Savior Cathedral to solve the most urgent issues for the church and society, including the clergy's political position, the church's social work, and the church's attitude toward public blasphemy.
"A special wording of a prayer for suicides has been developed in Moscow. I instruct the divine services commission to study it, and, if approved by the Holy Synod, it will be sent to all dioceses for use," the patriarch told the Council.
Kirill, who raised the issue for the first time more than a year ago, said the need for such a prayer was caused by the fact that bishops are often asked for burial services for those who committed suicide.
At a church meeting in Moscow in December 2009, when asked on the issue, the patriarch said the Church is not entitled to pray for people who killed themselves "in sound mind and memory."
However, Kirill said then, when the circumstances of a suicide are not clear and the person is believed to have committed it "while being not completely free to decide," which apparently means under the influence of a mental disorder or drug addiction, a priest could ask God in a special prayer to show mercy to the person.
The patriarch said that the prayers will be read by priests only if a bishop gives his permission upon thoroughly considering each such case.
MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti)
