Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations meets with the head of Agency for Religious Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan

On 20 February 2013, in Astana, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with Mr. Kairat Lama Sharif, chairman of the Agency for Religious Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. They were joined in the meeting by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan and Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Central Asia.

Metropolitan Hilarion told the chairman of the Agency for Religious Affairs about his visits to the speaker of the Senate of the Kazakh Parliament, Mr. Kairat Mami, and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Erlan Idrisov. The participants in the meeting discussed the religious situation in the Republic and, in particular, the cooperation with  the authorities of the metropolitan area of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

That same day, Mr. Kairat Lama Sharif delivered a lecture to the participants of the field courses of professional development for bishops of the metropolitan area of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan, of the metropolitan area of Central Asia and of Azerbaijan. The course has been organized by the ROC’s School for Post-Graduate and Doctoral Studies with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.