NIZHNY NOVGOROD, September 11 (RIA Novosti)...

"The Church retains the apostolic faith that the apostles accepted from the Lord himself," Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia told an audience of several thousand young people in the Volga town of Sarov who gathered in an indoors sports venue.

He said the Church should "go forward" but avoid being reformed "to please modern tendencies," while simultaneously remaining attentive and considerate toward people"s "demands and problems, toward their joys and sorrows."

The patriarch slammed tendencies in some branches of Christianity, which allow ordaining women as priests or blessing homosexual marriages.

"People should realize that falling away from faith under whatever pretexts is sinful and dangerous for man himself," Kirill said.