Father Cyril, how do people relate to your community after your community joined the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church?
Many people are interested in the Old-Rite faith and ask me about the faith. They believe that there is no difference between confessions, to which I reply to them that my members have become much more spiritual and this is noticeable in our daily Christian life.
What is your relationship with other denominations and government agencies in Pakistan?
Praise be to God, that there are those who sympathize with us in the local government and who provide support, for example, with the allocation of land. Among other denominations, many are interested in our faith. We live among different Christian churches and Christians, including Copts, Roman Catholics, Greek and Russian New-believers, and also Protestants. However, interest in our faith is growing every month. Many already come to our daily services and are catechumens. Praise God, that He leads people to church. Relations with other confessions are normal and we try to live according to the commandments of Christianity.
Father Cyril, is it difficult to conduct priestly duties over so many parishioners?
We must do this by God’s will. We used to always travel everywhere on a motorcycle with my matushka (a motorcycle is a common form of transport in Pakistan – author’s note). It would be a lot more efficient to travel between communities by car.
How do you see the joint association of the Old-Rite communities of Russia and Pakistan?
We do not want to be dependents, to constantly ask for donations from the Russian communities. It would be much more beneficial and interesting for us to conduct business, as Pakistan is very famous for its fabrics, red salt, handicrafts, as well as oranges.
