As decided in late March at the yearly meeting of the Council on Cooperation with Religious Associations, under the aegis of the President of the Russian Federation, the religious communities of Russia have started a fund raising campaign to buy humanitarian aids for the Syrian population. The initiative is coordinated by “a special workgroup within the Council that brings together people from different Russian religions and confessions, including the Catholic Church”, as posted on the website of the diocese of St Clement, in Saratov. Funds will be paid into an account of the Welfare and Charity Department of the Orthodox Church and will be used to buy “parcels of food and drugs to be sent to people who need them in Syria, regardless of their religion or religious background”, explains the post, which calls everyone to donate, “even a little amount, that it may be for us a message of solidarity with those who have experienced the horrors of war”. Patriarch Kirill asked the Orthodox parishes of Moscow to join the initiative and allocate to such aids the money they would have spent for the traditional flower compositions to celebrate the Patriarch’s name-day, which is today, the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the Orthodox calendar.