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On 26 June 2018, at the premises of the Archbisopric of Athens, His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece received Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, who had arrived in Greece with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to take part in the 25th annual Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Hilarion conveyed to His Beatitude greetings, good wishes and a memorable gift from the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. In a warm atmosphere the participants in the meeting discussed various issues of bilateral and pan-Orthodox cooperation.

“I thank His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece for this opportunity to meet and discuss various issues of inter-Orthodox relations,” the DECR chairman said in a brief interview after the meeting, “We talked about our bilateral relations and about the Church-state relationships in Greece and in Russia. I told His Beatitude about the current difficult situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I was happy to meet again with His Beatitude and find His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos in good health. I wish him many and good years.”

Archbishop Ieronymos also expressed his joy over the opportunity to meet with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, to exchange opinions on various topic of the pan-Orthodox importance and to discuss the good brotherly relations between the Church of Greece and the Russian Church, as well as a number of some topical problems, for instance, the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine.

Taking part in the meeting were also Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, and the DECR staff members, Rev. Anatoly Churyakov and Hierodeakon Grigory (Sokolov).

DECR Communication Service