Orthodox Churches

Session of Coordinating Committee for Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church of England takes place

A session of the Coordinating Committee for Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church of England took place on February 22, 2014. Taking part in the session held in the framework of Metropolitan Hilarion’s working visit to London were the DECR chairman; Archbishop Yelisei of Sourozh; hieromonk Ioann (Kopeikin), prorector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius School of Post-Graduate Studies, and Artem Borzov, a staff member of the DECR. The Church of England was represented by Bishop Richard Chartres of London, Bishop Jonathan Goodall of Effsfleet, and the Revd Andrei Petrine.

They discussed cooperation between the two Churches, for instance, the education of students from the Russian Church in the universities of Great Britain. The Russian side expressed its willingness to admit British students into the theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church, for instance, into the Ss Cyril and Methodius School for Post-Graduate Studies.

‘Traditional Values in an Era of Globalization’ Symposium takes place in London

An international symposium on the Traditional Values in an Age of Globalization organized by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and the Diocese of London of the Church of England, was held at the ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ office in London on February 21, 2014.

Cypriot foreign minister visits the Patriarchate of Jerusalem

On the evening of Wednesday the 8^th/19^th of February 2014, the Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ioannis Kasoulides, while in Israel for a political visit, visited the Church of the Resurrection and the Patriarchate. Mr Kasoulides was accompanied by his personal associates and by the diplomatic delegates of the Republic of Cyprus to Israel and the Palestinian Autonomy.

Patriarch Kirill appeals to the Entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church on Current Events in Ukraine

Honorable Archpastors and Pastors, Dear Brothers and Sisters, Children of the Church:

It is with anxiety, pain and alarm that I continue to follow ongoing events in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine. Kiev is the birthplace of a great Orthodox civilization which united the peoples of Holy Rus. Kiev is the city of the One Font of the Baptism, the 1025th anniversary of which we only recently celebrated together with all the Local Orthodox Churches. For me, Kiev is a special, dear city, a city I have often visited, it is a city I love and know well. It is unbearably painful to hear the news of the many casualties in this holy place, of the hundreds of wounded, of the unrest in various regions of Ukraine.

Shaun Casey, American Representative to the Middle East, visits the Patriarchate

On Monday the 4^th/17^th of February 2014, Mr Shaun Casey, Special Advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, representative of US President Obama and mediator in the peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, visited the Patriarchate.

Mr Casey was received by His Beatitude Theophilos, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Name Day of Patriarch of Alexandria in Mozambique

On Monday 17th February 2014, The feast of the Saint and Great Martyr Theodoros of Tyre, the day on which His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria celebrates his name day, the Very Reverend Archimadrite Daniel Biaziz, Preacher of the Holy Metropolis of Zakynthos, conducted a festal Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Holy Archangels in Maputo, officiated by the Patriarchate, at which the children of the youth choir of the Cultural School of the Diocese sang hymns.