Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society underscores necessity of attracting public attention to the situation of Christians in the Middle East

Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, Sergei Stepashin, in his report at the 2^nd Conference of the IOPS spoke about the situation of Christians in the Middle East region. He said:’ Society should be very attentive to the ongoing processes and to the consequences of the so called ‘Arab Spring’, and in the first place to the persecution and violence against Christian minorities in some Arab countries.”

Having noted that these problems are in the focus of attention of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, Mr. Stepashin congratulated His Eminence on his election to the Committee of the IOPS honoured members.

Mr. Stepashin believes that public circles in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church might have “attracted world public opinion to the situation of Christians in the Middle East and seek approaches to the solution of this extremely delicate problem.” The speaker added that intense an activity of the IOPS as an international public organization is taken favourably in the Middle East region, also by Christian communities in the Arab countries.