Department for External Church Relations
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The DECR Chairman Visited Ethiopia
DECR Communication Service, 06.06.2026.
From June 3 to 5, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ and at the invitation of the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Church, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, paid a visit to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
On June 3, Metropolitan Anthony met with His Holiness Abune Mathias, Patriarch of Ethiopia, as well as with the Permanent Members of the Synod: its General Secretary, Archbishop Abune Dioscoros of Raya, and the Administrator of the Ethiopian Church, Archbishop Abune Sawiros of West Shoa. The Chairman of the DECR visited the Patriarchal Holy Trinity Cathedral and the burial place of members of the family of the last Emperor, Haile Selassie I, located on its grounds, as well as the graves of Ethiopian Patriarchs and the new martyrs of the Ethiopian Church who suffered for the faith in the past century.
On the same day, Metropolitan Anthony met with the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Taye Atske-Selassie, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the FDRE, E.E. Terekhin, and also communicated with representatives of the Ethiopian media.
On June 4, negotiations took place between the Chairman of the DECR and Ethiopia’s Minister of Peace, Mohamed Idris. The Metropolitan visited the Russian Red Cross Hospital named after the Ethiopian national hero Dejazmach Balcha, the Ethiopian Church’s Migbare Senay Hospital, and the Ethiopian women’s monastery dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos of Gethsemane in Sebeta. A meeting with compatriots residing in Ethiopia was held at the Russian Center for Science and Culture.
On June 5, Metropolitan Anthony visited the Cemetery of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Addis Ababa and served a memorial service at the burial site of Russian compatriots - representatives of the Russian émigré community of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. At Ethiopia’s principal ecclesiastical institution of higher learning, Holy Trinity University, the Metropolitan met with its rector, Archbishop Abune Philipos of South Omo, as well as faculty members and students. There, the Chairman of the DECR also held a meeting with members of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church.
The visit program also included a visit to the complex of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos on Mount Entoto and the adjacent residence of Emperor Menelik II dating from the end of the nineteenth century, the founder of the present capital of Ethiopia.
On the evening of June 5, the Metropolitan departed for Moscow.
At Addis Ababa Airport, Metropolitan Anthony was seen off by: the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ethiopia, E.E. Terekhin; Archbishop Abune Philipos of South Omo; M.V. Borovkov, Minister-Counselor of the Russian Embassy; A.S. Chesnakov, Senior Counselor of the Embassy; and Priest Daniel Seifemichael.
During the visit, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations was accompanied by Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), Secretary of the DECR for Inter-Christian Affairs, and Priest Alexander Ershov, Assistant to the DECR Chairman.
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