Orthodox Churches

DECR chairman meets with president of Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) met with President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christians Unity Cardinal Kurt Koch.

They dealt with a wide range of issues reflecting the actual state of Orthodox-Catholic Relations. They paid special attention to the grave situation in which Middle East Christians have found themselves and considered the results and further prospects of the cooperation between the two Churches in the area of humanitarian aid to the needy. They also discussed ways of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in the sphere of culture.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk meets with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

On 24 September 2017, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, began his working visit to Rome.

17.5 ton bell installed in Novospassky Monastery bell tower

Work on the installation of a new massive bell in the bell tower of the men’s Novospassky Monastery on Krestyanskaya Square has been completed, reports Interfax-Religion.

The new bell, made from a fusion of copper and pewter, weighs 17.5 tons; the monastery’s bell tower is 264 ft. high, making it the second tallest in the capital, after the Ivan the Great bell tower in the Kremlin, which measures 266 ft.

Relics of martyred Queen Ketevan arrive in Georgia

A piece of the relics of holy Great Martyr Queen Ketevan arrived in Tbilisi from India yesterday. The reliquary was greeted at the Tbilisi airport by His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II as well as clergy and faithful of various churches, reports Blagovest-Info.

125th Anniversary of Orthodox Christianity in Chicago

Alexandrian Patriarch Theodoros II awarded by President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic with the order of Great Cross of Apostle Mark. A high state order handed in to Patriarch Theodoros II.

President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic received in audience His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa, who was paying an official visit to Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In a cordial and friendly conversation with Patriarchs of Alexandria and of the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Theodoros II and His Holiness Irinej, President Vucic thanked for the great contribution which during his decade-long missionary work Patriarch Theodoros II had provided towards the development and consolidation of the peaceful cooperation among countries and peoples. He drew attention to the great importance that the Serbian Orthodox Church had had throught the history and emphasized readiness of the Serbian state to support completion of works at the St. Sava Cathedral in Belgrade.