International christian delegation has visited Belgrade

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN DELEGATION HAS VISITED BELGRADE

The representative of the Non-formal International Christian Peace Group, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Archpriest Leonid Kishkovsky, representative of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, Rev. Keith Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, and Rev. Jurgen Gohde, chairman of the Diakonical Service of the Evangelical Church in Germany and vice president of Eurodiakonia, arrived in the capital of Yugoslavia on May 27.

Upon their arrival, they met with the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slovodan Milosevic. The head of the Yugoslavian state was introduced to the position formulated by the Non-formal International Christian Peace Group at its first meeting on May 18 in Vienna. The discussion with the FRY president revealed a growing degree of the willingness on the part of the leadership of the country to reach such a settlement which could put an immediate end to the military action and satisfy all parties involved.

Then the situation in Yugoslavia and the international aspects of the present crisis were subjected to a detailed discussion during the meeting between the international Christian delegation and His Holiness Patriarch Paul of Serbia and members of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The primate and hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church expressed an agreement in principle with the position of the International Christian Peace Group.
On the following day, the delegation met with the special envoy of the Russian President for settling the situation around Yugoslavia, Mr. V. S. Chernomyrdin. The parties exchanged information about the currently undertaken peace efforts.