Department for External Church Relations
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Meets with Chairman of World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad
DECR Communication Service, 16/06/2026
On 16th June 2026, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ met with Mr Mikhail Drozdov, chairman of the World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad. The meeting took place in the Throne Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church presented to Mr Drozdov the Order of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow, 3rd Class. The high award was given to Mr Drozdov in consideration of his work in promoting ties between the Russian citizens living in foreign countries and the Russian Orthodox Church and on the occasion of his 55th birthday.
Present at the award ceremony were Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Bishop Alexy of Ramenskoye, personal secretary to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.
His Holiness pointed out the importance of Mr Drozdov’s work. “Working with compatriots is what a considerable part of my life involved, and I can imagine both joys and sorrows one faces on this path,” Patriarch Kirill said, “God grant that our compatriots may not lose a real connection with their Homeland, that they may preserve the Orthodox faith and raise their children and grandchildren in it, and that the Russian diaspora may be a part of the large Russian world.”
Mr Mikhail Drozdov sincerely thanked His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for the high award and warm wishes and shared with those present his memories of the time when in the early 2000s he accompanied His Holiness, back then the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, on his visit to China. “I am glad that since then I have had the opportunity to work, in particular, for the good of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said.
Mr Drozdov has been serving as chairman of the World Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad since 2015.
Photo by the Press Service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’
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