Metropolitan Kirill on a visit to Iraq

METROPOLITAN KIRILL ON A VISIT TO IRAQ

On 25 March 2002, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, departed for Iraq as head of a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church.

This is a reciprocal visit. Representatives of the Christian Churches from Iraq visited Russia in June 1998 as guests of the Russian Orthodox Church. Planned are meetings with spiritual leaders of Christian and Muslim communities of Iraq and representatives of the Orthodox Russian-speaking diaspora who need pastoral care.

Besides, consultations with representatives of the high state authorities of Iraq will be held on the matters of humanitarian situation in the country. It is known that the major Christian Churches of the world have persistently called upon the world community to pay more attention to the needs of the population of Iraq who suffer from the consequences of the imposed political and economic isolation. The Russian Orthodox Church shares this position. It is well aware of the necessity of international control for non-proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, but at the same time it is concerned with the situation of peaceful population of Iraq who live in poverty and are deprived of adequate medical care because of the severe economic sanctions.

The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church will give medicine to children’s clinic in Baghdad as a token of sympathy and solidarity with the people of Iraq on the part of the believers under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Metropolitan Kirill is accompanied by Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR secretary for Inter-Orthodox Relations and N.V.Pavlov, a DECR consultant.

See also:

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate