One of the high ranking officials of the Russian Orthodox Church promised not to allow same-sex marriages in Russia

During the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church held on June 24th - 29th in Moscow the issue of the "human rights in orthodox understanding" is most likely to be on the agenda of the Council.

Today during the press-conference at Russian Information Agency RIA "Novosti" his Holiness Theophan - the bishop of Stavropol and Caucasus region, stated that the Russian Orthodox Church would speak in support of the understang of the human rights from religious point of view only. The Russian Church will affect the development of the legal institutes in Russia inscribing its understanding within the frameworks of the orthodox ideology.

In particular Rev. Theophan said that the Russian Orthodox Church "would never admit same-sex marriage". "It is the firm position of the Church and it can not be shifted or altered", - he stressed, saying that "the major right of the man, given to him by God, is the right not to admit morally the destruction of the personality and the society in general".

In recent years the Russian Orthodox Church's activities were one of the homophobia provoking factors. We would like to remind that the results of the polls taken by Gay.ru earlier this year showed: 30 per cent of the LGBT peolpe in Russia consider the Orthodox Church one of the major source of homophobia.