The Interreligious Council in Russia meets for its regular session

The Interreligious Council in Russia met for its regular session on October 12, 2005, at the Pilgrimage Center of the Moscow Patriarchate. The meeting was attended by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations; Russia’s Chief Rabbi A. Shaevich (Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations); Mufti Muhammadgali Huzin, deputy chairman of the Central Moslem Board in Russia; Haris Saubyanov, head of the Council of Muftis staff; Mufti Magomed Albogachiev of the Coordinating Center of the North Caucasus Moslems; Sanzhei-lama of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha in Russia; and Rabbi Z. Kogan, chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia.

The meeting discussed a plan for interreligious activities for 2006. It was decided to hold an expert seminar of representatives of religious organizations on May 25-26 in Moscow and an enlarged Presidium of the CIS Interreligious Council on July 3 and a summit of world religious leaders on July 3-4. Leaders and representatives of major Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Buddhist organizations, as well as leaders of international religious organizations are expected to attend the summit. The meeting also considered amendments to be made to the Law on the Principles of Tourist Work in the Russian Federation.

After the meeting the participants held a press conference.