New Russia Holiday Marked as Kremlin Boosts Church

By REUTERS
July 28, 2010

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia officially celebrated a new holiday on Wednesday marking its conversion to Christianity in 988, the latest Kremlin boost to an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism.

Rights groups have criticized the new holiday, approved by President Dmitry Medvedev in June, as undermining Russia's secular constitution and members of the country's large Muslim minority have complained that it excludes them.

Marking the anniversary, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, told state-run television: "Abandoning the historical significance of the baptism of Rus means discarding the supporting pillar of our entire civilization". the rest