On July 5-6, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), was on a visit to Istanbul, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, DECR informs.
On July 5-6, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), was on a visit to Istanbul, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, DECR informs.
On July 6, the DECR chairman met with His Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the Fanar residence of Patriarchs of Constantinople. In attendance were Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Archimandrite Bartholomew (Samaras), chief secretary of the Church of Constantinople Holy Synod, Deacon Joachim (Billis), assistant to the Holy Synod secretary, and Deacon Theodore (Shulga), DECR secretariat for inter-Orthodox relations.
During their long talk, the sides discussed a wide range of issues concerning inter-church cooperation in the preparations for a Pan-Orthodox Council planned to take place in 2016, as well as other topics on the agenda of bilateral relations between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow.