Patriarch Kirill meets with the leaders of St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation
On November 9, 2011, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the leaders of the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation at the patriarchal working residence in Chisty Pereulok.
Participating in the meeting were cofounders of the Foundation: chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relation Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Protek Vladimir Yakunin, and the Foundation’s executive director Leonid Sevastyanov.
A report on the St. Gregory Foundation’s charitable activity was presented to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill noted assistance the Foundation renders to a wide range of church educational, social, and cultural programs, and made special mention of its support to the Department for External Church Relations and Sts. Cyril and Methodius Postgraduate and Doctoral School.
Expressing his particular gratitude for the Foundation’s support to the Department for External Church Relations, His Holiness Kirill said: “Thanks to this, the DECR has opportunities to carry out quite a number of important programs, including those related to the DECR chairman’s visits. Visits to rather remote regions require a lot of means the Church does not have now. I held this post myself, so I know how difficult and painful it is to arrange such visits, especially when the visit was planned, but we were not certain about support. The assistance being provided on a regular basis is a great relief.”
His Holiness Kirill also mentioned assistance, rendered to the Postgraduate School: “I attach great importance to this educational institution. It opened in proper time, when our Church started the Bologna Process. Under this system the Postgraduate School has much to do: to train qualified specialists and to give them opportunity to defend their theses for masters’ and doctors’ degrees. This educational institution needs financing for a proper work of its rector, His Eminence Hilarion, and its staff, faculty and students.”
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church thanked St. Gregory Foundation for taking part in restoring the building of the Postgraduate and Doctoral School and for supporting its everyday activity.
His Holiness Kirill also mentioned the Foundation’s assistance to the Patriarchal Centre for the Old Russian Liturgical Tradition as very important.
The participants discussed the Foundation’s various charitable projects.
Mr. Yakunin thanked His Holiness Kirill for his invariable support to the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation and presented him with an icon-lamp of multicolored glass made at the workshops of Rostov the Great city.
The St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation was set up in August 2009. Among its primary tasks is the implementation of educational projects, support to the DECR, and help in developing religious education and church scholarship, in particular, the Postgraduate and Doctoral School and other educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Foundation also supports the St. Elijah of Murom Orthodox classical school at the Murom Monastery of the Transfiguration and helps organize theological conferences and international public events. The latest event was the international symposium on Ethical Aspects of Banking and Social Role of Banks: Russian and Italian experience (Mosow, November 2011).