Metropolitan Hilarion meets with chairman of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization

On 2 September 2018, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, rector of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies, met with Dr. Abouzar Ebrahimi Torkaman, head of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, who also acts as cochairman of the Joint Russian-Iranian Commission for Orthodoxy-Islam Dialogue. He arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Medinsky, to attend the Days of Iranian Culture in Russia.

Taking part in the meeting held at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute were Mr. Dr. Qahraman Soleimani, head of Iran’s Cultural Representation in Russia; Mr. Idris Idrisov, interpreter; and Rev. Dimitry Safonov, secretary for interreligious relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, academic secretary of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies.

Metropolitan Hilarion warmly greeted the high guest. The participants discussed the results of the last session of the Joint Commission for Dialogue that took place in Tehran in May 2018 and focused on attitude of the Orthodoxy and Islam to the environment and ecological problems. The participants in the meeting noted the good nature of relationships between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Islamic community of Iran, established over 20 years ago, emphasized the importance of academic contacts between the two religious communities and discussed some other issues of mutual interest.

DECR Communication Service