Festive reception in the Kremlin

On 4 November 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a reception in honour of the Day of National Unity in St.George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace.

Attending the reception on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church were Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Sergiy of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for church charity and social ministry; Bishop Alexander of Dmitrov, vicar bishop of the Moscow diocese; Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for Relations with the Army and Law Enforcement; Archpriest Vladimir Siloviev, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House; hegumen Ioasaf (Poluyanov), head of the Patriarchal centre for spiritual development of children and young people at St.Daniel’s monastery in Moscow; Priest Mikhail Dudko, DECR secretary for state-society relations; Archpriest Alexy Zlobin, rector of the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Gordon, Tver region; Archpriest Artemiy Vladimirov, head of St.Philaret’s Brotherhood; hieromonk Anatoliy (Berestov), head of the Rehabilitation centre for assisting those who suffer from drug, alcohol, game and other addictions; Priest Dimitriy Olovyannikov, chairman of the Department for church charity and social ministry of the Moscow diocese; Archpriest Andrei Goryachev, rector of the church of the Tikhvin Mother of God in Moscow.

Also attending the reception were Orthodox laymen – heads and representatives of international and Russian charity organizations, regional charity associations, heads and representatives of social institutions and organizations, volunteers and participants in charity projects.