Print This Post


January 18, 2018 – The traditional Christmas meeting took place at the receptions house of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting was attended from the church side by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), Archpriest Nikolay Balashov and Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairmen, Archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for the far abroad, Hieromonk Stephen (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations, Rev. Dimitry Safonov, and DECR secretary for interreligious relations. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there were Mr. G. Karasin, state secretary and deputy minister of foreign affairs, Mr. O. Vasnetsov, director of the department for relations with constituent members of the Federation, parliament and public organizations (DSPO), Mr. A. Rudenko, director of the second department for the CIS countries, Mr. I. Mozgo, DSPO deputy director, Mr. M. Melekh, deputy head of the DSPO department for relations with major Russian religious associations, Mr. I. Korostelev, second secretary of the DSPO department for relations with Russian major religious associations, and Mr. O. Komarov, third secretary of the DSPO department for relations with Russian major religious associations.

The participants in the meeting, held in a friendly atmosphere, discussed various issues concerning cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the conclusion of the meeting Metropolitan Hilarion and Mr. Karasin exchanges tokens of the meeting.

 

DECR Communication Service