The fourth national conference on religious tourism and pilgrimage commenced on Friday in the northwest Greek city of Arta, in the wake of a recent “travel advisory” by the Moscow Patriarchate informing the Russian Orthodox faithful which Holy Metropolises in Greece have the blessing of the Russian Patriarch for such a pilgrimage.
The conference also comes two days after Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was received in Moscow by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, with both men more-or-less concluding that the issue of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s autocephaly will not affect bilateral relations between Greece and Russia.
The national conference is being co-organized by the Church of Greece’s synodical office for pilgrimage tours, the Epirus regional government and the Metropolises of Arta, Nikopolis & Preveza, and Ioannina.
The main theme of the conference is “Epirus: An Approach to Religious Monuments and their Civilization – New Paths towards its Unique Pilgrimage Destinations”.