Department for External Church Relations
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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk attends interreligious meeting on Religion and Education
On October 5, 2021, with a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, took part in the interreligious meeting on Religion and Education, which took place in the Vatican.
The event was attended by heads and representatives of Christian confessions, world religions, members of the academic community, educational workers.
The participants were addressed in particular by Pope Francis of Rome, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University Ahmed Mohamed At-Tayeb, Egypt, acting Secretary General of the World Council of Churches Archpriest John Sauka, UNESCO deputy general director for education Prof Stefania Jannini.
In his remarks, Metropolitan Hilarion stressed that a full-fledged educational process is impossible witрhout reliance on religious values. According to the DECR chairman, the principal value of Christianity is the personality of Jesus Christ. It is a treasure that calls upon today’s Christians to hand it down to coming generations. It is the reference to the personality of Christ that inspired through centuries many generations of people of science and art for creating the best works of human mind and spirit. Metropolitan Hilarion also recounted Dostoevsky’s experience of coming in touch with Christ, which made a colossal impact on the writer’s creative work.
According to the DECR chairman, turning to the personality of Christ at the present time may have a great importance for improving the quality of education in the whole world and for propagating its understanding as a holistic process including the spiritual and intellectual development of a person.
In conclusion of his remarks, Metropolitan Hilarion expressed a hope that this perception of the educational process will remain one of the central topics in interreligious dialogue and continue bringing forth good fruits in the future.
DECR Communication Service
Photos: Vatican News
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