Thursday evening, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Patriarch Daniel of Romania had a private meeting at the Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest. During the meeting, the two Primates of Orthodox Churches exchanged their views on church issues and the relations between the two Patriarchates, the Press Service of the Russian Patriarchate reports.
His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill referred to the future events on the occasion of the centenary of the Moscow Council of 1917-1918, marking the restoration of the Russian Patriarchate and the enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon, and to commemorate the persecutions against the Orthodox Church during communism. On this occasion, Patriarch Daniel was invited to visit Moscow and to attend the celebrations.
The topics discussed included the following:
- Situation of Christians in the Near East;
- Means to help persecuted Christians;
- Situation in Ukraine;
- Mission for peace of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The participants also considered the further development of common Orthodox interaction and exchanged evaluations of the Council of Primates and representatives of Local Orthodox Churches which took place in 2016 in Crete.
The meeting was attended by Met. Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop Sergiy of Solnetchnogorsk, Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, Archpriest Andrey Bondarenko, Priest Aleksands Volkov, Priest Igor Yakimchiuk, on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Together with Patriarch Daniel, representing the Romanian Orthodox Church, were present His Eminence Hon Metropolitan Nifon, Archbishop of Targoviste, Fr. Michael Tița, patriarchal adviser, and Fr. Eugeniu Rogoti, interpreter.
Prior to the meeting, Russian Patriarch Kirill and his delegation visited the Palace of the Patriarchate.
Photograph: Robert Nicolae/ Basilica.ro
