Patriarch Kirill meets with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado

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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met on 30 October 2009 with President of the Republic of Ecuador Rafael Correa Delgado at the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour. Before their meeting, the Ecuadorian delegation was taken on a tour of the cathedral.

The Ecuadorian delegation included foreign minister Fander Falkoni, defense minister Javier Ponce, mining minister Germanico Pinto, electricity minister Esteban Albornoz, policy minister Diego Borja, sports minister Patricio Chavez and Ecuadorian ambassador to Moscow Patricio Chavez Zavala.

The Russian Orthodox Church was represented by Hieromonk Philip (Riabykh), DECR vice-chairman, Rev. Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR acting secretary for the far abroad, Archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev, sacristan of the cathedral, and others. Present at the meeting was also Russian ambassador to Ecuador Ya. Burlyai.

Patriarch Kirill welcomed the Ecuadorian president, saying, ‘The Russian Orthodox Church, just as the Republic of Ecuador, stands for multi-polar world order. It is our profound conviction that unipolarity is a sign of the instability of today’s world’. In his opinion, unipolarity resembles a man who stands only on one foot. ‘He cannot be very strong physically, nor can he possess power or stand long on one foot’. He noted, ‘for the world to be stable, it needs several poles to include also poles related to the original culture of a civilization. That is why it is so important that Ecuador becomes today Russia’s significant political and economic partner’.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed that the visit of the Ecuadorian president was historic as ‘it is the first visit to be made by an Ecuadorian president to Russia after diplomatic relations were established in 1945’, and it testified to a new important period in the development of bilateral relations between the two countries.

His Holiness reminded his guests that there was a Russian diaspora living in Ecuador. In the early 1990s, a small Orthodox Russian-speaking community was founded in Machala. In 2007, a Parish of the Holy Trinity was established in Quito. He expressed hope that a Russian church would be built in the Ecuador’s capital. He also expressed regret that organizations which describe themselves as Orthodox Church but which are not such emerged sometimes in Ecuador and other Latin American countries.

President Rafael Correa Delgado thanked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for the opportunity to meet. He offered condolences upon the death of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II.

He also spoke about inequality in the global system and the need to create a multi-polar world and carry out a democratic process in international organizations.

DECR Communication Service

Photos by the Patriarchal Press-Service and Communication Service

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Patriarch Kirill meets with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado

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