Print This Post

Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, arrived on Sofia on May 15, 2011. He is accompanied by Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, Hierodeacon Ioann (Kopeikin), assistant to the DECR chairman, and Mr. L. Sevastyanov, executive director of the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity.

Among those who met the guests at the airport were Bishop Naum of Stob, general secretary of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod, Bishop John of Znepol, vicar of the Sofia diocese, Hieromonk Zotik, of the Russian Orthodox Church Representation in Sofia, and Mr. S. Foshkin, counsellor of the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria.

The DECR chairman will stay in Bulgaria till May 17. He will meet with His Holiness Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria and Russian Ambassador Y. Isakov and will take part in the events to commemorate the Martyrs of Batak who have been recently canonized as saints of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

DECR Communication Service