Print This Post

On 17 September 2014, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), began his visit to Bulgaria with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Metropolitan Hilarion is accompanied by the Very Revd. Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, and hierodeacon Nikolai (Ono).

The representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were met at the airport by Bishop Tihon of Tiberiopol; archimandrite Gerasim (Georgiev), secretary of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church; archimandrite Filipp (Vasiltsev), rector of the metochion of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in Sofia; and Ms. Yelena Prikhodko, second secretary of the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria.

The visit will last from December 17 to 19. It is timed to the centenary of consecration of the St. Nicholas church-metochion in Sofia. Metropolitan Hilarion will meet with the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, with representatives of the state authorities, will celebrate at the St. Nicholas church, and address the students of the University of Veliko Tarnovo.