Metropolitan Hilarion meets with Ambassador of Great Britain to Russia
On 26 November 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), met with H.E. Tim Barrow, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Russian Federation.
They were joined in the meeting by archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries, and Mr. James Ford, second secretary of the political section of the Embassy of Great Britain.
Metropolitan Hilarion greeted the Ambassador and shared his reminiscences of his student years in Oxford and his impressions of the recent visit to London where he attended celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Sourozh diocese.
Metropolitan Hilarion told the guests about the Russian Orthodox Church, her place and role in the life of contemporary society, the religious situation in Russia, and the interreligious dialogue and cooperation.
Discussed were the situation of Christians in the Middle East region and North Africa, the latest initiatives of the Moscow Patriarchate, for instance, the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church of Poland to the reconciliation of the peoples of Russia and Poland, as well as the Orthodox-Catholic and Orthodox-Anglican relations at present.