Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church visits the Republic of Korea

Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative secretariat and administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in the countries of East and Southeast Asia arrived in Seoul visited the Republic of Korea on June 15-16, 2017 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Accompanying Archbishop Sergy are Mr. Petrovsky of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and Mr. Sokolov, assistant to the head of the Administrative secretariat.

On June 15 he took part in the presentation of the book by the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, “Freedom and Responsibility. A Search for Harmony” in the Korean language. The presentation took part at the Embassy of the Russian Federation and was widely covered by the Korean mass media.

On June 16, Archbishop Sergy celebrated the requiem litiya at the monument to the fallen sailors of the Russian cruiser Varyag in the city of Incheon and laid flowers.

That same day he visited St. Nicholas Cathedral in Seoul and met with Metropolitan Ambrose of Seoul (Ecumenical Patriarchate). Hierarchs of the fraternal Local Orthodox Churches offered up prayers and venerated the shrines in the cathedral and in the church of St. Maximus the Greek. They discussed issues pertaining to the history of the Orthodox mission in Korea and situation at present, as well as common witness about the truths of Orthodoxy before the rapidly secularizing modern world.

Later in the day Archbishop Sergy met with the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea and with the head of the Anglican Church of Korea, and with the Mayor of Seoul.