On August 5, 2021, with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, made a working trip to Jordan.
Metropolitan Hilarion met with Patriarch Theophilus III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine in Amman.
As stated in the message of the Russian Orthodox Church, "the DECR chairman conveyed to His Beatitude warm congratulations from the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The conversation touched upon a number of topics of mutual interest, including the situation in the world in connection with the coronavirus pandemic and related anti-epidemic restrictions that affect the normal course of church life."
The meeting was attended by the DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations archpriest Igor Yakimchuk.
As Risu informed, the FSB envoy and the Russian ambassador to Israel often visited the Primate of the Jerusalem Church. So, on July 22, 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Israel Anatoly Viktorov met with Patriarch Theophilus III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine at the patriarchal residence in Jerusalem.
The meeting was attended by Archimandrite Alexander (Elisov), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and member of the IOPS Council, as well as hieromonk Afanasy (Bukin), treasurer of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission.
The so-called Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (IOPS) is headed by the former director of the FSB of the Russian Federation Sergey Stepashin.
In mid-June 2021, Russian ambassador Viktorov and FSB envoys already met with the patriarch of Jerusalem. After that, Russian experts again started talking about Amman 2.0
As reported, the formal initiator of the meeting in Amman in November 2019 was Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem. He made the proposal bypassing Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, after meeting with Kirill and Putin, when he received an award from the Russian "foundation for the unity of Orthodox peoples". The Russian Orthodox Church proposed this as an initiative of Jerusalem. But in fact, it was Moscow that promoted the idea. It was striving to create a new platform for condemning the actions of Constantinople in Ukraine.
Orthodoxy is represented by 15 autocephalous churches. Four of them (not counting the OCU) made it clear that they would not go to the meeting of the Russian Orthodox Church in Amman. These are the patriarch of Constantinople, the Archbishop of Alexandria, Cyprus and Greece. Heads of the four largest churches. The Russian Orthodox Church broke off relations with Constantinople, Greece and Alexandria because of the recognition of the OCU.
In January 2020, there was a second attempt by the patriarch of Jerusalem, at the suggestion of Moscow, to convene a meeting in Amman to create opposition to the Ecumenical Patriarch because of his "interference" in the Ukrainian church crisis. All the letters of invitation to the Primates se4nt by the Patriarch of Jerusalem was rejected.
In January, Patriarch Bartholomew sent an astringent letter to Jerusalem, in which he reminded that Theophilus is not competent for such steps, so the "initiator" of the Amman meeting no longer insisted on his initiative. The only church that agreed to attend the meeting was the Church of the Czech lands and Slovakia. The Primates of the Greek and Cypriot churches publicly refused to arrive.
So, despite the entire arsenal of available funds, Russia has not been able to form a grand coalition against Constantinople. Now the general situation of Orthodoxy on the church map does not look favorable for the Russian Orthodox Church.