Department for External Church Relations
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Patriarch Kirill arrives in Minsk
On October 13, 2018, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, began his fifth primatial visit to the Byelorussian Orthodox Church.
At the Minsk airport the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was met by Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchate Exarch for All Belarus; I. Petrishenko, deputy prime minister of the Republic of Belarus; L. Gulyako, high commissioner for religious and ethnic affairs; M. Babich, Russian ambassador to Belarus, and representatives of the episcopate and clergy of the Byelorussian Orthodox Church.
Addressing mass media reporters at the airport, His Holiness Kirill said,
‘I have come to Minsk, to the Byelorussian land I hold so dear to my heart, in the year of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’. And in connection with this remarkable event – the celebration of the anniversary of our common Christian history – it has been decided to hold in Minsk a session of the Holy Synod. It is the first session in the history of our Church to be held in the Byelorussian land.
We are to make many important decisions, among them, to make a response to what is happening today in the family of Orthodox Churches, to the situation developing in Ukraine. I hope that the Orthodox Church will find resources in herself to overcome the crisis phenomena which exist, to preserve her unity so essential for the religious revival of our peoples.
May God’s blessing be upon the Byelorussian land’.
During his trip, Patriarch Kirill is accompanied by Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the department for external church relations; Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat; Archpriest Andrey Bondarenko, acting head of the patriarchal protocol service; and Rev. Alexander Volkov, head of the patriarchal press service.
The meeting of His Holiness with the Byelorussian flock is dated for the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ and the feast of the Protecting Veil of the Most Holy Mother of God.
On October 13, the Primate of the Russian Church will celebrate the compline at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Minsk.
On October 14, the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, His Holiness will celebrate the grand consecration of the monument church dedicated to All Saints, preside over the first Liturgy at the newly consecrated church and lay a wreath at the Victory Monument in Minsk.
On October 15, Patriarch Kirill will meet with the Byelorussian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Independence Palace. On the same day, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet at the Minsk diocesan administration.
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