MOSCOW, January 28, 2010. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing how Russians assess the performance of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, since one year he took his office, and what they feel towards him.
Seventy-one percent of Russians know who currently heads the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) (compared to 68% previous year). The number of those who are not aware is the same - 26%.
Russian people tend to treat Patriarch Kirill with respect (48%), likes (24%), hopes (22%) and trust (21%). Ten percent feel admiration to him; 3% feel love. Russians rarely assess the Patriarch negatively: indifference (7%), distrust (2%) and disappointment (1%).
A year after the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill more Russians report they respect him (from 44 to 48%) and admire him (from 6 to 10%). However, the number of those who pin hopes on him has decreased form 27 to 22%.
The majority of those polled did not mark any changes in the ROC`s performance after the Kirill`s enthronement (78%).At the same time, 4% report that the church has become closer to people; those who report increased influence of the Church, as well as those who say Patriarch Kirill makes lots of efforts to attract believers and made Russian Orthodox Church reunification are 3% for each group. Two percents say that problems of the Church have become widely discussed etc.
Simultaneously, two-thirds of Russians consider that the church policy of Patriarch Kirill meets public demand (64%). The percentage of the orthodox believers who share this stance makes up 73%. Those who oppose this position are in the minority - 6%. Most satisfied with the Patriarch's performance are elderly respondents (74%) and residents of big cities (75%); least satisfied are young respondents and metropolitan residents (49 and 58% respectively).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on January 23-24, 2009. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of errordoes not exceed 3.4 %.
Do you know who currently heads the Russian Orthodox Church? Could you name him? (open-ended question, one answer) | ||
| 2009 | 2010 |
Named right | 68 | 71 |
Named wrong | 1 | 1 |
Do not know | 26 | 26 |
Hard to tell | 5 | 2 |
What do you feel towards Patriarch Kirill? (close-ended question, not more than two answers, % of those who knows Patriarch's name) | ||
| 2009 | 2010 |
respect | 44 | 48 |
likes | 22 | 24 |
hope | 27 | 22 |
trust | 22 | 21 |
admiration | 6 | 10 |
indifference | 6 | 7 |
love | 1 | 3 |
distrust | 0 | 2 |
disappointment | 0 | 1 |
skepsis | 1 | 1 |
antipathy | 0 | 0 |
hatred | 0 | 0 |
condemnation | 0 | 0 |
hard to tell | 11 | 7 |
To what extent does the Patriarch Kirill`s policy meet public demand? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
| Total respondents | Orthodox followers | Followers of other religions | Fluctuating between belief and unbelief |
completely meet | 21 | 26 | 7 | 5 |
rather meet | 43 | 47 | 31 | 31 |
rather not meet | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
not meet at all | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
hard to tell | 30 | 22 | 56 | 55 |
Have you mentioned any changes in the Russian Orthodox Church`s activity after Kirill` s enthronement? If yes, what changes? | |
The church has become open and closer to people | 4 |
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and Russian Orthodox Church united | 3 |
The influence of the Church has extended | 3 |
Patriarch has started to travel around the country more and to attract more believers | 3 |
The problems the Church faces are increasingly discussing | 2 |
The Church started to closely cooperate with the state | 1 |
New Patriarch promotes peace | 1 |
The Church has put more attention to public moral education | 1 |
He continues the work of the Patriarch Alexy | 0 |
No changes | 78 |
Other | 0 |
Hard to tell | 5 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!