Bishop Matthew of Sourozh and Russian Consul General meet with Primate of the Antiochian Archdiocese in the USA
On 7 May 2019, a meeting was held in the spiritual-administrative center of the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America, between its primate, Metropolitan Joseph of North America, the interim administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh and Consul General of the Russian Federation in New York, Sergey Ovsyannikov.
They were joined in the meeting by Archpriest Thomas Zain, vicar general of the Antiochian Archdiocese; Rev. Mark Rashkov, cleric of St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City; Vice-Consul Aleksey Topolsky of the Russian Federation; and Nikolai Trubnikov, private secretary to Bishop Matthew,.
After exchanging Paschal greetings, the hierarchs discussed various issues pertaining to cooperation between the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Patriarchal Parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in the and exchanged opinions on the recent actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate that have done harm to pan-Orthodox unity.
Metropolitan Joseph asked Bishop Matthew and Consul Ovsyannikov to convey his heartfelt gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the Russian President Vladimir Putin for rendering every assistance to the people of the Syrian Arab Republic.
The participants of the meeting also discussed the programme of the visit of a delegation of the Antiochian Archdiocese in the USA with Metropolitan Joseph at the head to the Russian Orthodox Church in May 2019.