Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA meets with Mr. S. Tarour, UN Secretary General’s secretary for public information and communication

Bishop Merkury of Zaraisk, administrator of the Patriarch Parishes in the USA, met with Mr. S. Tarour, UN Secretary General’s secretary for public information and communication, on March 23, 2006, at the UN headquarters in New York.

He conveyed to Mr. Tarour an invitation from Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, to come to Moscow for the World Summit of Religious Leaders to be held on July 4-5, 2006,

Bishop Merkury informed the UN Secretary General secretary about the work of the Russian Orthodox Church to ensure interreligious harmony and the social service and peacemaking efforts of the Moscow Patriarchate both inside and outside Russia.

He also expressed the confidence that the experience accumulated by the Christ through centuries can and must be used in the work of the UN which has declared the overcoming of conflicts and the building of a secure and just peace as its principal priorities.

Mr. Tarour and Bishop Merkury discussed some practical aspects of the participation of the World Russian People’s Council as an organization with a consultative status at the ECOSOC in the activities of the UN system.

Participating in the meeting were also Russian Ambassador to the UN A. Denisov and Rev. Alexander Abramov, secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate representation in the USA and representative of the WRPC at the UN.