| Photo: mospat.ru The 4 th Plenary Session of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church took place from September 19 to 24, in Moscow. The Moscow Patriarchate membership included Bishop Gennady of Kaskelen – co-chairman; Hieromonk Stephen (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations – secretary; S. G. Alferov, DECR staff. The Coptic side was represented by Metropolitan Serapion of Los Angeles – co-chairman; Bishop Kyrillos, vicar of the Diocese of Los Angeles, rector of the Ss Athanasius and Cyril Seminary in Los Angeles – secretary of the Commission; Hieromonk Dawoud al-Anthony, representative of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Russia; Dr Anton Milad, Patriarchal adviser; Dr Iskhak Ibrahim Agpan, general secretary of the Institute of Coptic Studies. The session was preceded by a meeting of the Commission members with His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, which took place on September 20 at the Supreme Church Council Hall of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour. Metropolitan Serapion thanked the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church for the welcome and made a report on the Commission’s current activity and further plans for its work. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill cordially greeted the guests pointing to the invariably good relations binding the Moscow Patriarchate and the Coptic Church and to the ages-old friendship between the nations of Russia and Egypt. His Holiness made a special mention of the successful work of the Commission and the high significance of its joint projects. Among them are: – Monastic visits and pilgrimage tours; – Bilateral theological consultations on the Joint Commission’s work on theological dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Churches; – Joint work to promote pastoral care for the faithful of the two Churches residing in Egypt and Russia; – Academic cooperation between the leading Russian and Coptic theological schools; |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy His Holiness Patriarch Kirill meets with WCC acting general secretary Archpriest Ioan Sauca On October 17, 2022, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Archpriest Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Attending the meeting that took place at the Patriarchal Residence in St Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow, were also Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman; Archpriest Mikhail Gundyaev, representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches and international organisations in Geneva; Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations; and Rev. Benjamin Simon, Program Executive for Church Relations of the WCC. Greeting the guest, His Holiness said, in particular, “I appreciate that you have come to Russia in these trying times in order to meet with me and my brothers and talk about the situation unfolding in international relations. Naturally, this situation affects inter-church relations as well.” Having emphasized an important role of the World Council of Churches in overcoming various problems arising in the relationships between the nations, Patriarch Kirill shared with Fr Ioan Sauca his recollections of the time when he had served as representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the WCC in Geneva in 1971-1974. “I remember great many political crises that caused serious troubles for the inter-Christian movement, and then challenges would be posed to the very fact of the WCC existence,” His Holiness continued, “Yet, we would always find a way out and help the Churches engage in the process of peace-making.” The current difficult situation in the world takes its toll on inter-church relations, His Holiness noted and mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic with its wide range of problems was an aggravating factor affecting the life of people and Churches likewise. “I appreciate that in these trying times the World Council of Churches is up to the tasks and challenges facing it,” he added. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: the work of the DECR can be compared to the service of border-guards 75 years ago, in 1946, the Russian Orthodox Church got its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After three decades of terrible years of persecution, the Church was able to establish new social contacts and begin peacemaking activities. For this, the oldest synodal department for external Church relations was established. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of Moscow Patriarchate " s Department for External Church Relations, spoke about those years in an interview with the " Rossiyskaya Gazeta " . - Your Eminence, during the Great Patriotic War the Church, despite long-standing pre-war repressions, was side by side with the fighting people. Everybody knows about Stalin’s telegram of January 1943 to Metropolitan Sergiy, in which the leader thanked the Church for her patriotic stand, returned to the Church the status of legal identity and allowed her to open accounts for collecting funds for the front. Was the establishment of the department, which you are heading today, necessary for ultimately breaking the isolation of the Russian Orthodox Church? - The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate was formed soon after the Great Patriotic War, in 1946. In that period, especially pressing was support for developing the peace-making activity of the Church, her first contacts after the three decades of continued persecutions. Even in those trying conditions, the Church began to come out gradually from the isolation, building the first bridges with Christians of other confessions, representatives of other religions, with the Russian church diaspora. - But there appeared in time the so-called Khrushchev reform that actually enabled a rollback to the most horrible times in the relations between the Soviet state and the Church… |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy The second meeting of the Working Group for Coordinating Bilateral Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church was held DECR Communication service, 02.05.2023. On April 24-27, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan, the Working Group for Coordinating Bilateral Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church held its second meeting at the Stavropegial Convent of the Protection of the Mother of God in Moscow. The Moscow Patriarchate was represented by: Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, co-chairman of the Working Group; hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations, secretary of the Working Group; deacon Dimitry Serov, head of the Moscow Theological Academy Publishing House; hierodeacon Pyotr (Akhmatkhanov), staff member of the Department for External Church Relations. The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church was represented by: Metropolitan Abraham Mar Stephanos, Metropolitan of the Diocese of UK, Europe & Africa; Rev. Aswin Fernandis, Executive Director of the Department of Ecumenical Relations. The Working Group members noted the utmost importance of their meeting with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia held in the Patriarchal Chambers of the Kremlin Faceted Palace on 25 th April 2023 . T he issues raised during that meeting provided a basis for further deliberations at the Working Group’s session concerning the development of the bilateral relations. During the meeting, the Working Group reviewed collaborative projects implemented since its previous meeting in Kottayam (February 3-7, 2020). The participants of the meeting noted the following: |
| Archive Пн Patriarch Kirill meets with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 27 May 2019 year 21:51 On May 27, 2019, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Dunja Mijatovi. Taking part in the meeting were also: from the Russian Orthodox Church – Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR); Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman; Archimandrite Philip (Riabykh), Moscow Patriarchate representative to the Council of Europe and rector of the Parish of All Saints in Strasbourg; from the Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs – Mr. I. Soltanovsky, permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe. The CE Commissariat for Human Rights was represented by Mr. Bojan Urumov, deputy director of the Commissioner for Human Rights secretariat; and Mr Furkat Tishaev, adviser to the Commissioner. Addressing Ms. Mijatovic, Patriarch Kirill noted the important role played by the Council of Europe as an organization that proclaimed human rights advocacy as its primary goal. “It is very important that the Council of Europe has a potential and specialists capable of helping people resolve concrete problems connected with human rights violations”, His Holiness said, “You certainly know better than I do that the problem of human rights violations exists on various levels, for instance, when the rights of whole large groups of people are violated on national, ethnic, religious, cultural grounds and when the rights of an individual are violated. There are various national structures, which should protect human rights, and I hope they are effective enough in their work, but it is important that there is also a super-national body – the Council of Europe, which deals with these problems”. As His Holiness pointed out, for already many years the Russian Orthodox Church has paid close attention to the problem of human rights. In particular, in the 90s, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill (then Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad) wrote two articles setting forth his view of the problem of human rights. These thoughts were later laid in the basis of the document on “Basic Teaching of the Russian Orthodox Church on Human Dignity, Freedom and Rights”. |
| Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the diocesan exhibition of children " s drawings " We draw flowers " The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations Department History Contacts Documents Archive Insights News Patriarch DECR Chairman Social Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Home page News Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the op… Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the diocesan exhibition of children " s drawings " We draw flowers " DECR Communication service/ Website of the Diocese of Sourozh 09.11.2023 On Sunday, November 5, 2023, after the Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral in London, His Grace Bishop Matthew of Sourozh took part in the opening of the exhibition of children " s drawings “We Draw Flowers,” dedicated to the 159th anniversary of the birth of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. The exhibition presents works by students of parochial schools of the Sourozh diocese from London, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham. The exhibition also presents drawings by students of secular Russian schools: " Fairy Tale " (London), " Rainbow " (London), " Knowledge " (London), " Istok " (Reading), and the art studio " Drawing Together " . Opening the exhibition, Bishop Matthew spoke about the importance of venerating the saints in the life of every Christian and drew attention to the fact that the Holy Martyr Elizabeth is especially close to Orthodox believers living in Great Britain. After the untimely death of Princess Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and the mother of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the future saint was raised for 6 years in Great Britain, mainly living in Osborne House Palace, Queen Victoria " s summer seaside residence in the town of East Cowes on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight. |
| On July 27, 2015, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the delegations of Local Orthodox Churches, who came to Moscow for the millennium of the demise of the Holy Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles. Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru/ There were delegations of the Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Poland, the Czech Lands and Slovakia, and Orthodox Church in America. Present at the meeting were also Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat, Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman, and other ROC clergy in charge of inter-Orthodox relations. Addressing the gathering, Patriarch Kirill said in particular, ‘One thousand years have elapsed since the demise of the Baptizer of Rus’, but his memory has not died away to become an exclusive property of academic science, but continues living in the hearts of millions of the faithful in all the nations who derive their sources from the Dniester baptismal font… Alien to one another and capable of indifference, strife or political union before, the nations, by their communion with Christ, became one Body of His Church, uniting in the Spirit of God with all who are near and who are far and opening up anew in brotherly love’. His Holiness said that the commemoration days of such Baptizers of nations as Prince Vladimir, King Boris of Bulgaria, Prince Rostislav of Moravia, St, Nina the Enlightener of Georgia, and others are not only national days but also the celebration of the Plenitude of the Church. ‘We see today that the commemoration celebrations devoted to the Baptizer of Rus’ have brought together representatives of Churches from all over the world who like loving brothers celebrate our unity’. Patriarch Kirill also spoke about unity as a characteristic of the Church of Christ and a value for any Orthodox Christian. ‘It is the greatest gift of God that, despite many political and other conflicts, we have preserved our unity… We are united in that together we repulse those who wish to sow discord and divisions in the Church… |
| The 150th anniversary of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission " s representation in Jericho was celebrated on the Holy Land The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations Department History Contacts Documents Archive Insights News Patriarch DECR Chairman Social Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Home page News The 150th anniversary of the Russian Ecclesiastica… The 150th anniversary of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission " s representation in Jericho was celebrated on the Holy Land DECR Communication service, 17.12.2023. On December 15, 2023, the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem solemnly celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of its representation in honour of St. Zacchaeus, the holy Apostle of Christ, former tax collector, Bishop of Caesarea in Palaestina, reports the REM press service. The land plot, acquired for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission by its head Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in 1873, is associated in the Christian Tradition with the location of the house of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. The ruins of a Byzantine monastery and the mosaic on the tomb of Abbot Kiriak, located on the territory of the representation, are viewed as evidence for that claim. With the blessing of His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, the festive Divine service on a significant day for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission was celebrated by Metropolitan Timothy of Bostra (Patriarchate of Jerusalem). His Eminence was accompanied by Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeyev), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Parthenios, rector of the Church of the Prophet Elijah in Jericho, Archimandrite Roman (Krasovsky), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem within the Russian Church Abroad, Hegumen Nikon (Golovko), secretary of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Amfilohiy, clergyman of the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem; Hieromonk Amvrosy (Ignatov), clergyman of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission " s representation in honour of the Holy Forefathers in Hebron, Hieromonk Innocent (Bespalov), clergyman of the Gorno Nunnery in Ein Karem, and Hieromonk Abraham (Romanian Patriarchate), resident of the monastery in honour of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Jericho. |
| On February 15, 2016, during his visit to the Republic of Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Russian plot at the central city Recoleta Cemetery, in which Russian émigrés, who joined the Paraguayan Army as volunteers and were killed in the Chaco War (1932-1935), were buried. The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church honored the memory of the dead compatriots and read at the cemetery the prayer for the repose of their souls. Participating in the prayer service were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations (DECR), Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Bishop Peter of Cleveland (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, ROCOR), Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Administrative Secretariat, Bishop John of Caracas and South America (ROCOR), Bishop George of Canberra (ROCOR), Bishop Leonid of Argentina and South America, Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan (ROCOR), Bishop Anthony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Office for Institutions Abroad, Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman, Archpriest Andrey Milkin, head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service, and the Rev. Maxim Boyarov, rector of the church of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land in Buenos Aires. Praying at the service were descendents of first wave Russian émigrés. As a sign of respect for the memory of the Russian soldiers, the Paraguayan Army Guards of Honour clad in the uniform of Chaco War times lined up at the cemetery. Prayers were lifted up for the repose of the souls of " the leaders and soldiers of our Motherland who gave their lives for this country and her people and for all Orthodox Christians buried in this land. " At the Society of Officers building, a meeting took place between His Holiness and compatriots and descendents of Russian émigrés. Participating in the meeting were Metropolitan Hilarion, Russian Ambassador N. Tavdumadze and Russia’s Honorary Consul I. Fleischer-Shevelev. |
| Archbishop Tikhon of Podolsk Takes Part in Memorial for Russian War Prisoners in Slovenia Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru On 25 July 2020, with a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Archbishop Tikhon, administrator of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany, took part in the memorial services at the Russian Chapel of the Holy Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles on the Vrsic Pass in Slovenia. This year, the ceremony, organized by the Russian embassy in Slovenia, the Slovenia-Russia Society, the Kranjska Gora city administration and the Russian World Foundation, was held under the motto of solidarity and unity of nations and was devoted to all those who, during the pandemic that has become a common disaster, have shown exceptional orderliness, competence and compassion. Because of the pandemic restrictions, the event was attended by 200 people. The memorial was opened by the orchestra of the Slovenian police. It performed the national anthems of Slovenia and Russia. The assembly was addressed by Kranjska Gora Mayor Janez Hrovat, President of the Slovenian State Council Aloiz Kovsca, Russian ambassador T. Eivazov, and Slovenia-Russia Society member Urban Ocvirk. The ceremony devoted to the 104 th anniversary of the chapel was attended by President of Slovenia Borut Pahor, chairman of the Slovenian State Council Igor Zorcic, Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb-Ljubljana (Serbian Orthodox Church), Bishop Stanislav Lipovsek of Celje (Roman Catholic Church), Bishop Leon Novak (head of the Evangelical Church of Slovenia), and chairman of the Slovenia-Russia Society Saša Ivan Gerina. Traditionally, President Pahor and Ambassador Eivazov laid wreaths at the Sons of Russia obelisk at the chapel. Then the head of the Russian Orthodox Church delegation, Archbishop Tikhon of Podolsk, said the Office for the Dead for the Russian war prisoners who died during World War I in Slovenia. Requiems were sung by the family quartet led by conductor-reader Mathew Kobro from Munich. |
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