DECR representative attends opening of the spiritual culture of Russia and Ethiopia celebration and meets with the leadership of the Ethiopian Church.

DECR Communication service, 14.07.2023. 

From 27^th to 30^th June the Days of Russian and Ethiopian Spiritual Culture event took place in Addis Ababa. The event was held to mark the 125^th anniversary of the establishment of Russian-Ethiopian diplomatic relations in 1898, the forthcoming 225^th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and the second Russia-Africa summit of the heads of state and government, scheduled for the end of July 2023 in Saint Petersburg.

The events were organized by the Russian ministry for culture jointly with the Russian foreign ministry, the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) and the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The central event of the Days of Russian and Ethiopian Spiritual Culture was the round table on the closeness of the spiritual and cultural legacy as the foundation of the development of Russian and Ethiopian relations. The round table was led by the Russian ambassador to Ethiopia Yevgeny Terekhin and the head of the delegation from the Russian ministry of culture the director of the Russian ethnographic museum Yulia Kupina. The speakers were representatives of state and cultural institutions and leading experts in the field of science and art from both countries.

With the blessing of the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony, attending the session was S.G. Alferov from the DECR who gave a presentation on the spiritual ties of Russia and Ethiopia in the past and the present. In his presentation the representative of the oldest Synodal institution of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke to those gathered on the friendly relationship of the two largest Churches of the Eastern Christian world which goes back over many centuries and today has reached an unprecedented level thanks mainly to the role of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and the Patriarch of Ethiopia Abune Mathias.

The programme of events included a visit to the cultural institutions of the Ethiopian capital such as the Abrehot Library, the museum of anthropology at Addis Ababa University and the State Ethnographic Museum, and photo exhibitions on the unique legacy of the Russian historical and ethnographic architectural Kitezh museum.

On 30^th June at the end of his visit to Ethiopia S.G. Alferov, accompanied by people from the Russian embassy and the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, visited the main Patriarchal and Synodal residence of Addis Ababa. With the blessing of the Primate of the Ethiopian Church, the Russian delegation was received by the permanent secretary of the Holy Synod the archbishop of New York Abune Petros. Also attending the meeting were the rector of the Holy Trinity Theological University in Addis Ababa the archbishop of South Omo Abune Philipos and the co-chairman of the commission for dialogue between the Russian Orthodox and the Ethiopian Church, the director of the department of external relations of the Ethiopian Church Father Daniel Seifemihael and secretary of the commission, as well as commission member the director of the department of church projects and dean of the parishes of Addis Ababa archimandrite Ueldeiesus Sefuhalato. A discussion in the spirit of trust took place on a wide spectrum of topics relating to the agenda of the commission and other issues of mutual interest. In addition, the representative of the DECR held a series of separate meetings with the heads of the information department, the Mahibere Kidusan youth association and other synodal institutions of the Ethiopian Church. He sent greetings to the participants of the congress of inter-diocesan missionary and catechetical work.

Within the confines of the Days of Russian and Ethiopian Spiritual Culture under the auspices of the DECR there were also negotiations between representatives of the Ethiopian Church, the Russian education ministry and Russian institutes of higher learning on the development in Ethiopia of Russian projects in the field of education.