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On 24 July 2010, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church visited the Dnepropetrovsk Diocesan Administration and met with the diocesan clergy.
Metropolitan Irinei of Dnepropetrovsk and Pavlograd addressed His Holiness, saying: “We were looking forward to your visit to pray with you and hear your exhortations.”
Attending the meeting were Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Saransk and Mordovia, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitans Irinei of Dnepropetrovsk and Pavlograd and Ilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol; Archbishops Efrem of Krivoi Rog and Nikopol and Feognost of Sergiev Posad, abbot of the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius; Bishops Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slavyansk, Yevlogy of Novomoskovsk, and Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations; Mr. Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Information Department; archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy chairman of the DECR MP; Rev. Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for Inter-Christian Relations; hieromonk Antoniy (Sevryuk), head of the Patriarch’s personal secretariat, and M. Kuksov, a staff member of the same Secretariat, and others.
In his address, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia noted positive changes in the diocese, such as more churches, and, most important, the enhanced authority of the Church.
His Holiness underscored the importance of Dnepropetrovsk as an intellectual and industrial centre of Ukraine, mentioning specific features of pastoral care for the inhabitants. For instance, His Holiness called for a special attention to the quality of sermons and reminded the audience of the necessity to develop social ministry and ministry to the youth. He emphasized that concrete charity work should be done at all parishes.
“The problem of church unity, so topical for Ukraine, can and must be solved through the active church life… We should be a community of love, healing, and reconciliation; we should help people to acquire the meaning of life… Our words should be the worlds of love addressed to the world,” His Holiness said. He is confident that in this case people will make right choice in their hearts, as they are doing now and as they did in the 1920s, when a schism of renovation appeared.
His Holiness answered questions of the participants in the meeting.