Talks between Primates of Russian and Romanian Orthodox Churches

October 26, 2017 – His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania held talks at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest. Before the talks began, Patriarch Daniel showed Patriarch Kirill the interior of the Patriarchal Palace.

Participating in the bilateral talks were: from the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR); Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat; Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; Rev. Alexander Volkov, head of the Patriarchal Press Service; and Archpriest Andrey Bondarenko, acting head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service.

From the side of the Romanian Orthodox church there were Metropolitan Niphon of Târgovişte, head of the Romanian Patriarchate department for external church relations, Archpriest Michael Tica, patriarchal adviser for international affairs; and Deacon Eugene Rogoti, a Romanian Patriarchate staff member.

In the course of the two-hour fraternal talk, which was held in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, the Primates exchanged information about the service and various aspects of the work of the Russian and Romanian Orthodox Churches and discussed inter-church cooperation.

Patriarch Kirill spoke in particular about the forthcoming events in Moscow devoted to the centenary of the 1917-1918 Local Council, the restoration of the Patriarchal Office and the election of St. Tikhon to the Patriarchal see and about the beginning of the era of persecution against the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Daniel was invited to come for the commemorative events.

Along with the bilateral relations, they discussed such topics as the situation of Christians in the Middle East, the aid to persecuted Christians, the situation in Ukraine and the peacemaking service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They dealt in particular with problems involved in the aggressive actions of non-canonical groups and representatives of the Greek Catholic Church, the violation of human rights in Ukraine and attempts of certain forces to lobby discriminatory draft laws.

The participants also considered the further development of common Orthodox interaction and exchanged evaluations of the Council of Primates and representatives of Local Orthodox Churches which took place in 2016 in Crete.