Местоблюститель престола предстоятеля Русской Православной Старообрядческой Церкви поблагодарил Русскую Православную Церковь за соболезнование в связи с кончиной митрополита Андриана

The Locum Tenens of the Old Belief Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, Archbishop Ioann of Yaroslavl and Kostroma, sent a letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, thanking for the sympathy and condolences he expressed over the death of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Belief Church, Metropolitan Andrian. Below is the text of the letter.

Your Holiness,

I wholeheartedly thank you for the words of sympathy and understanding you sent to the clergy and faithful of the Russian Orthodox Old Belief Church in connection with the demise of its Primate. Your sincere response has once again underscored the important contribution that the late Metropolitan Andrian made to the task of establishing good-neighborly relations between our two Churches for the short time of his primatial service.

I hope that mutually beneficial contacts, which are so necessary for the normal development of society and without which good-neighborly relations are hardly possible, will be continued following the late Metropolitan Andrian by a new Primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Belief Church.

Archbishop IOANN of Yaroslavl and Kostroma

Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan of Moscow

A similar letter was sent to the Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, in response to the condolences he offered to the Locum Tenens of the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, Archbishop Ioann of Yaroslavl and Kostroma, over the death of Metropolitan Andrian.