On 22 November 2018, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) arrived in Seoul with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Metropolitan Hilarion leads a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Round Table “Russian Orthodox Church and Compatriots. Experience…

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, greeted His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, with the anniversary of his enthronement. The text is given below. Your Beatitude: Please accept my heartfelt greeting with the anniversary of Your enthronement as Patriarch…

In his letter sent to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of the Great Antioch and All the East expressed his gratitude to the Russian Orthodox Church for the assistance that it gives to the people affected by the war in Syria. The letter reads, in particular,…

On November 19-20, 2018, the UN Alliance of Civilizations held a global forum on Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace at the UN headquarters in New York. It gathered together over one thousand political, religious and public figures from UN member states. The opening of the event was attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres,…

His Holiness Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II of Georgia, the most beloved and trusted man in the nation, has celebrated his 56th mass Baptism ceremony at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, the site of the Georgian Orthodox Church reports. More than 700 children became the patriarch’s Godchildren this time around at the mass ceremony celebrated on the…

On 19 November 2018, an International Conference on Improving the Interfaith and Inter-Civilizational Dialogue to Cooperation was held in the German capital. The participants in the conference were greeted by Sheikh-ul-Islam Pashazadeh, chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus; Mr. Markus Grübel, Member of the Bundestag and Commissioner for Global Freedom of…

A new book on Archbishop Makarios to be launched this week looks at the stormy political career of the church primate who also served as the country’s first president. Written by diplomat Demetris Assos, who holds a PhD from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London awarded to him for his dissertation…

On 17 November 2018, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, arrived in Damascus on a working visit. In the capital of Syria Metropolitan Hilarion visited the Patriarchate of Antioch and met with His Beatitude…

On November 17, 2018, during his visit to Damascus, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), met with the Grand Mufti of Syria Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun. They had a frank talk about the current situation in Syria and further prospects for interreligious dialogue. Metropolitan Hilarion informed…