DECR Chairman meets with delegation from Athonite Esphigmenou monastery

On 11 September 2010, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Moscow Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist at the Chernigov Patriarchal metochion. Attending the service was a delegation from the Athonite Esphigmenou monastery headed by archimandrite Chrysostomos. The delegation visited Moscow en route from Greece to Valaam Island.

Fr. Chrysostomos heads a newly elected monastic community of Esphigmenou. It is recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople and by the Holy Community of Mt. Athos unlike the self-constituted fellowship of the so called 'zealots' which uses the monastery premises at present.

Metropolitan Hilarion met with the delegation after the Divine Liturgy. The pilgrims told him about the difficult situation in which they find themselves because of the irreconcilable stand taken by the old monastic community and about the efforts they undertake for normalization of the situation.

Archimandrite Chrysostomos presented the DECR chairman with a documentary film (in Russian) about the Holy Mountain and the situation with the Esphigmenou monastery.

That same day the delegation from Greece departed for the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

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DECR Chairman meets with delegation from Athonite Esphigmenou monastery

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons