The new head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church is soon to arrive to Belarus from Russia.
61-year-old Russian national Archbishop Pavel of Ryazan was appointed as the head of the Orthodox Christian Church in Belarus after Metropolitan Philaret had retired. He is not a Belarusian citizen yet. Alyaksandr Lukashenka congratulated Pavel with this appoinment after a brief pause.
Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus journalists asked Metropolitan Pavel if he was going to study Belarusian. "I will try," the church hierarch said. "I had to study languages everywhere. I had to learn English to communicate with people. I will try to learn Belarusian as much as I can."
