Memorandum on the meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate delegations

The delegations of the Ecumenical and the Moscow Patriarchates, including

– Metropolitan John of Pergamon, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, and Archimandrite Bartholomeos (Samaras), deputy general secretary of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople;

– Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, and Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations,

met on 26 March 2008 in Zurich to discuss the church situation in Estonia. The both parties considered it to be desirable to reach in a negotiation process a comprehensive agreement that would include both a solution of the problem of church immovables in Estonia to follow up the 1996 Zurich agreements and a solution to the problem of the canonical status of the church jurisdictions of the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow in Estonia.

They also discussed the theological dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church after the Ravenna meeting of the Joint International Commission. Stating their difference on this issue, the both parties agreed that it was necessary to continue discussing it.

On behalf of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,

On behalf of the Patriarchate of Moscow,

+ Emmanuel
Metropolitan of France

+ Kirill,
Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad

• Russian Orthodox Church suspends participation in activities of Conference of European Churches
• Talks between delegations of the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow
• Memorandum on the meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate delegations