Department for External Church Relations
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The DECR chairman completes his trip to the USA
On July 15, 2021, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relation of the Moscow Patriarchate, completed his visit to the USA made with a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to take part in the International Religious Freedom Summit which took place in Washington.
At the New York airport, Metropolitan Hilarion was seen off by Russia’s General Consul in the USA Mr. S.K. Ovsyannikov and Hegumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov), a cleric of the St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral.
On July 11, Metropolitan Hilarion concelebrated the Divine Liturgy together with His Beatitude Tikhon, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York and then had negotiations with the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.
On July 12, the feast of Ss Peter and Paul, Metropolitan Hilarion celebrated the festive Liturgy together with the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, at the Synodal residence of the Russian Church Outside Russia in New York.
On the same day, the DECR chairman, in his capacity of rector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute of Post-Graduate Studies, met with the president of St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York, Archpriest Chad Hatfield.
On July 14, the DECR chairman spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington. On the sidelines of the summit, he met with the former ambassador for international religious freedom Mr. Samuel Brownback, president of the Open Doors human right organization Mr. David Curry, vice-president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association V. G. Gamm, congressman Jim Slattery, German Bundestag member Waldemar Herdt, organizer of the National Prayer Breakfast in the USA Doug Burley, president of the Trans World Radio media company Mr. Lauren Libby, and leader of the Pulse Christian organization Nick Hall. On the same day, Metropolitan Hilarion visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist of the Russian Church Outside Russia in Washington where he was received by its rector Archpriest Victor Potapov, and visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation where he met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in the United States, Mr. A. I. Antonov.
On July 15, Metropolitan Hilarion held two meetings - with founder of the Catholic Urbi et Orbi foundation, the editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican monthly Robert Moyinihan, and a hierarch of the Russian Church Outside Russia and former Primate of the Orthodox Church in America Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen).
During his trip to the USA, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk was accompanied by Philipp Champion, a staff member of the DECR, and Sub-Deacon Vyacheslav Li.
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