Patriarchal congratulations to Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk on the 10th anniversary of his service as chairman of the Department for External Church Relations
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia congratulated Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk on the 10th anniversary of his service as chairman of the DECR. Below is the unabridged text of his message.
The Most Rev. HILARION
Metropolitan of Volokolamsk
Chairman
Department for External Church Relations
Your Eminence,
Ten years have passed since by the Holy Synod decision you were appointed as head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. I would like to thank you cordially for the help you and your co-workers give me in my hard Primatial ministry. I highly appreciate the contribution made by your synodal department to bearing witness to Christ before the world, to the beauty and truth of the Orthodox faith.
It is gratifying to note that the Department exerts every effort to establish good relations between fraternal Local Churches and peoples and advocates the unshakable principles of church order rooted in the patristic tradition.
May the God of love and peace be with you (2 Cor. 13:11) on the paths of your further archpastoral ministry, giving strength to you and your co-workers in the power of His might (Eph. 6:10).
With love in the Lord,
+ Kirill
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia