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“Dialogue:  Church, Society, State” photo exhibition opened at the Gallery of Classical Photography in Moscow on 9 November 2011. The viewers can be introduced to the primatial ministry of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia by looking at 150 photos presented by the press office of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the photobank of RIA ‘Novosti’.

Attending the opening ceremony were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Information Department; N. Loseva, deputy editor-in-chief of RIA “Novosti’; archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky, head of the Patriarch’s press office; pubic figures and representatives of the mass media. Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna visited the exhibition.

The DECR chairman opened the exhibition and said: “His Holiness the Patriarch has gone a long way, unconventional and bright. These photos show only a small part of a wealth of experience amassed by him as a disciple of Metropolitan Nikodim, as a student and later rector of the Leningrad Theological Academy, as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Geneva, as a ruling bishop of the Smolensk and Kaliningrad diocese, and as chairman of the Department for External Church Relations for almost twenty years. He has been a leading figure in the religious life of our Fatherland and the neighbouring states. Almost three years have passed since Metropolitan Kirill has been elected to the Patriarchal throne, and we cannot speak of him as of a new patriarch. We see the fruits of his work; we see that he pays great personal attention to all aspects of the life of our Church in Russia and all other states in the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Metropolitan Hilarion mentioned Patriarch Kirill’s visits to Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus and added that the church life was being revived in the entire post-Soviet space, but there are problems there which only the Patriarch can solve with the help of the whole Church and of state structures with which His Holiness carries on a constructive dialogue. His tremendous activity, including external church relations, is shown at the exhibition.

Metropolitan Hilarion informed the audience that the 65th birthday of His Holiness will be celebrated on 20 November 2011. Festive divine services will be celebrated; the Primates and high-ranking representatives of the Local Orthodox Church will come to Moscow; TV channel ‘Russia-1’ will show “The Pastor’s Way” film.

The exhibition includes photos from the personal archive of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the archive of the St. Petersburg theological schools, personal archives of the late Patriarch Alexy II and hierarchs of the Russian Church, as well as the archives of the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate and the “Sofrino” Art Production of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The exhibition will be open till November 27. Address: Savvinskaya Embankment, 23, block 1. Admission is free.