Department for External Church Relations
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DECR Chairman meets with representatives of Christian communities of Iraq
DECR Communication service, 28.09.2025.
On the evening of September 28, as part of his visit to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, took part in a formal reception hosted by His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Awa III for participants of the International Conference dedicated to the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.
In his welcoming address to the participants, the Primate of the Assyrian Church of the East emphasized the special significance of the presence of a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church at the event.
During the reception, held at the Assyrian Cultural Center in Erbil, Metropolitan Anthony met and conversed with hierarchs representing the Christian Churches of Iraq. The meeting was attended by: Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil (Chaldean Catholic Church); Archbishop Mar Nicodemus Sharaf of Mosul, Kirkuk, and Kurdistan (Syriac Orthodox Church); Bishop Nizar Semaan of Erbil and Kurdistan (Syriac Catholic Church); representing the Assyrian Church of the East: Metropolitan Mar Afram Athneil of Syria; Metropolitan Eugen Kuriakose of India and the Countries of the Southern Persian Gulf; Bishop Mar Abris Youkhannan of Duhok and Nineveh; Bishop Mar Elia Isaac of Baghdad; Bishop Mar Narsai Benjamin of Iran, Armenia, and Georgia; Bishop Mar Paulus Benjamin of the Eastern United States; Bishop Mar Benyamin Elia of Victoria and New Zealand, Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East; Bishop Mar Aprim Khamis of Western Europe; as well as Rev. Charles Luanga Ssuna, Chargé d’Affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Baghdad.
Various aspects of cooperation between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Christian communities of Iraq and the Middle East were discussed.
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