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On 22 January 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia arrived in Geneva to take part in the Synaxis of Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches.

The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church includes His Beatitude Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; and archpriest Nikolai Balashov, DECR vice-chairman.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill is also accompanied by Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; Rev. Alexander Volkov, head of the Patriarchal Press Service; and Rev. Anatoly Churyakov, DECR interpreter.

Meeting His Holiness at the airport were hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Jeremiah of Switzerland and Bishop Makarios of Lampsakos, rector of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Educational Centre in Chambésy; Archbishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad); Mr. Alexey Borodavkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva; Mr. Mikhail Zima, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Geneva; and archpriest Mikhail Gundyaev, representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches and International Organizations in Geneva.

Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

DECR Communication Service

Photo by Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia