Department for External Church Relations
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DECR chairman takes part in the conference ‘Spiritual exploit of Ss Constantine and Helen – the beginning and triumph of the Christian world in human history’
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On 2 October 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, took part in the international conference on ‘Spiritual exploit of Ss Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles – the beginning and triumph of the Christian world in human history.’
The conference, which took place at the Central House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was organized by the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and by Ss Constantine and Helena Foundation and timed to the 1675th anniversary of the demise of St. Constantine and the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan.
President of the Ss Constantine and Helen Foundation, Ms Ositis, opened the Conference; Metropolitan Hilarion greeted participants on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
In his report, the DECR chairman noted that the Edict of Milan was the most important legal document in history as it has drawn a dividing line between the two epochs: pagan Rome and Christian Europe. ‘The mighty state mechanism could not control the unarmed Christians who did not even offer any resistance; hence cardinal transformations in the empire initiated and carried out by St. Constantine the Great,’ he said. Metropolitan Hilarion underscored that the conference’s aim was comprehension of the 1700-years way of the Church of Christ from the Edict of Milan to the present. The most important thing in this comprehension is an answer to the question about the future of Christianity, the place and role of Christian values in the life of society, family, and individual, he added. Archpriest Nikolai Balakhovsky read out the greetings from Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.
Ms. Ositis and archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries acted as co-moderators of the conference.
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