Former head of the Evangelical Church in Germany visits the DECR
On 13 October 2017, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Huber, former chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg, visited the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) and was received by Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations, with the blessing Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.
They were joined at the meeting by Bishop Huber’s wife, Ms Kara Huber; Mr. Irek Suleymanov, deputy head of the Culture Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian Federation; Ms Yelena Speranskaya, a DECR adviser; and Mr. Sergei Bushmanov, a staff member of the DECR secretariat for inter-Christian relations.
Discussed were current relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany, including theological conferences being held in the framework of the bilateral dialogue. The last one took place in Moscow in December 2015.
Ms Speranskaya, a participant of many conferences, spoke about the history of the bilateral dialogue and noted that contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany had been intensive and contributed to reconciliation and rapprochement of people after the Second World War.
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Bishop Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Huber is well-known Protestant theologian and church leader. He served as chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany in 2003-2009 and made several trips to Russia. He is on a current visit at the invitation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia. While staying in St.Peterburg and Novosibirsk, he will give lectures on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.