His Holiness Patriarch Kirill arrives in Istanbul to take part in the meeting of Primates of Orthodox Churches

On 5 March 2014, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia arrived in Istanbul at the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Patriarch Kirill will take part in the meeting (synaxis) of the Primates and representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches.

Meeting Patriarch Kirill at the Istanbul airport were Mr. Andrei Karlov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Turkey; Mr. Alexei Yerkhov, Russia’s General Consul in Istanbul; staff members of the Consulate General; members of the delegation of Russian Orthodox Church; and representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople: Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima and Archimandrite Vissarion (Komzias), the great hierokiriks of the Church of Constantinople .

The official delegation accompanying Patriarch Kirill includes Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Nikolai Balashov, DECR vice-chairman; deacon Anatoly Churiakov, a DECR staff member; archpriest Andrei Milkin, head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service; archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; deacon Alexander Volkov, head of the Patriarchal Press Service; and Rev. Ilia Kosykh, head of the DECR Communication Service.

The meeting of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches will take place on 5-9 March, at the Patriarchate of Constantinople.