Bishop Serapion of Los Angeles (Coptic Church) visited the Department for External Church Relations

BISHOP SERAPION OF LOS ANGELES (COPTIC CHURCH) VISITED THE DEPARTMENT FOR EXTERNAL CHURCH RELATIONS

On June 1 Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, received Bishop Serapion of Los Angeles (Coptic Church) at the latter’s request. During the talk Metropolitan Kirill informed Bishop Serapion that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, following the recommendation of the Synodal Theological Commission, to consider it useful to continue bilateral theological dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox (Nonchalcedonian) Churches. Also discussed were other questions of the inter-Christian cooperation, including the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church to the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches. Taking part in the meeting were Hieromonk Hilarion (Alfeyev), secretary of the DECR MP for inter-Christian relations, and Vladimir Shmaliy, a staff member of the same Secretariat.