Our compatriots began to buy fewer religious goods, which is associated with a decrease in the purchasing power of citizens - the business newspaper Vzglyad reports this with reference to the words of the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Vladyka Hilarion, commenting on Rosstat's information about the growth in poverty on the Russia 24 TV channel, noted that sales of candles and icons had noticeably decreased; people, coming to church, less often order prayer services and give notes about health and repose. “That is, the temple's income has also dropped as a result of this drop in the purchasing power of the population,” he said. At the same time, according to Metropolitan Hilarion, new parishioners, benefactors and trustees appear in churches where “the priest is addressed to the people”. A person's intention to light a candle in a church or purchase a pectoral cross is not directly related to the level of his wealth. “The processes that take place inside a person are more important than what is happening around him,” the Metropolitan noted.
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