RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS





Orthodox controversy about outfitting churches with rest rooms

COMMENTARY IN RPTs ABOUT PETITION AGAINST CONSTRUCTION OF TOILETS IN CHURCH BUILDINGS

RIA Novosti, 10 June 2018

The installation of toilet rooms in territories near churches is today a vital necessity, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion, declared on Sunday, commenting on a petition of believers against the construction of toilets immediately within church buildings.

Earlier, on instructions from the Russian Ministry of Construction, new rules were worked out for the planning of church buildings, providing in particular for the placement of toilets immediately within buildings in the vestibules of churches. According to information of the coordinating center "We protect Program-200," already more than 700 thousand parishioners have affixed their signatures under a petition against construction of toilets in Orthodox church buildings.

"As I understand it, the petition is directed against placing toilets inside the buildings of churches. But as regards the construction of toilets in churches, I consider it a vital necessity. And this applies not only to cold countries but also to warm ones," Metropoitan Ilarion stated on air in the program "Church and World" on television channel Russia-24.

He noted that long worship services are conducted in Orthodox churches, and therefore conditions should be created so that any parishioner, in the event of need, could visit a toilet, "which is not located worlds away and not in some restaurant where he is not admitted if he does not order a cup of coffee," but "specifically within the church building."

The metropolitan added that the need for constructing toilet rooms in churches is also raised because children attend churches. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 June 2018)