Commissions of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church Outside of Russia complete their seventh working meeting

From 26 to 28 June, 2006, the Department for External Church Relations located on the territory of St. Daniel’s Monastery hosted the 7^th meeting of the Moscow Patriarchate Commission on dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the ROCOR Commission on discussions with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Taking part in the meeting on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate were chairman of the Commission archbishop Innokenty of Korsun, archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, archpriest Vladislav Tsypin, archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and secretary of the Commission archpriest Nikolai Balashov.

Chairman of the ROCOR Commission archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, bishop Ambrose, archimandrite Luke, archpriest Nikolai Artemov and secretary of the Commission archpriest Alexander Lebedev participated on behalf of the ROCOR.

Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad also took part in the discussion of certain questions.

The discussions focused on further steps toward the restoration of church unity in the light of the results of the 4^th All-Diaspora Council and the ROCOR Council of Bishops held in San Francisco last May. The proposals of the latter concerning the Act on Canonical Communion were thoroughly studied. After the detailed discussion a supplemented draft of the Act was worked out. It will be submitted for consideration to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and the ROCOR Synod of Bishops.

Certain aspects of interreligious and interchristian activities in which the Moscow Patriarchate is involved were explained during the meeting.

The Commissions considered canonical and practical problems that must be solved in connection with the restoration of church unity. These include the problems of the ROCOR parishes on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate and those of cooperation among bishops and clerics of the ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate performing their ministry abroad.

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