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From August 28-30, 2019, a delegation of the Malankara Orthodox Church of India was on a visit to St. Petersburg. The delegation included Metropolitan Zachariah Mar Nikolovos, head of the Malankara Church department for external church relations; Rev. Abraham Thomas, secretary of the department for external church relations; and Rev. Aswin Zefrin Fernandis, head of the Malankara Catholicos’s protocol service. The guests were accompanied by Hieromonk Stephan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations, Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relation (DECR), and P. Akhmatkhanov, DECR.

In St. Petersburg, the guests had an opportunity to visit the Cathedrals of Our Lady of Kazan and St. Isaac as well as the church of the Resurrection-on-the-Blood and the Hermitage state museum. On August 29, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the delegation attended the festive divine service at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery of the Holy Trinity and had a talk with the abbot Bishop Nazary of Kronstadt. On August 29, the delegation visited the Chapel of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg and was received by the rector of the church of Our Lady of Smolensk at the Smolensky Cemetery, Archpriest Victor Moskovsky. In conclusion of their visit to the northern capital, representatives of the Malankara Church visited the Novodevichy Convent of the Resurrection and had a meeting with its mother superior Sophia (Silina).

The visit of the delegation of the Malankara Orthodox Church is made in anticipation of an official visit to be made to Russia by the Primate of this Church, His Holiness Catholicos Baselios Mathoma Paulose II, which is to begin on August 31.