The Russian Orthodox Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, His Eminence Hilarion, arrived on Cyprus this week for a series of contacts with the Archdiocese of Cyprus — as he was received in Nicoasia by the Archbishop of Cyprus, His Beatitude Chrysostomos.
Hilarion, who is the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, was greeted upon his arrival on Cyprus by the Russian ambassador to the island republic — Stanislav (Oσάτσι) Osadchiy, who also accompanied him in his meetings.
As expected, both hierarchs discussed the contentious issue of the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate – a decision bitterly opposed by the Russian Church.