December 3, 2017 – His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania at the patriarchal residence in the St. Daniel monastery.
The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church was accompanied by
Metropolitan Nifon of Târgovişte, Archpriest Michael Tiţa, Archpriest
Ştefan Ababei, Rev. Eugeniu Rogoti, and Archdeacon Maxim Ţifui.
From the Moscow Patriarchate there were Metropolitan Hilarion of
Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations
(DECR), Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman, Archpriest Igor
Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, and Archpriest
Vladimir Aleksandrov, DECR staff member.
Welcoming the high guest, Patriarch Kirill said, ‘I am delighted at
the opportunity to meet with you, Your Beatitude, and your delegation
and discuss, among other things, the tasks facing us and the problems
arising in our everyday life. Yesterday you had an opportunity to attend
the last session of the Bishops’ Council and you heard that it made
very important decisions for our Church. I rejoice in the fact that the
Council revealed the strong unity of our episcopate in spite of
difficult processes taking place in Ukraine and demanding great courage
from our episcopate. And this courage was shown because they understand
that what they defend is the unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church’.
The two patriarchs discussed the religious situation in Ukraine,
particularly the problem of healing the schism. ‘I hope that by God’s
mercy at some point we will succeed in overcoming all these divisions.
And I was glad to hear a testimony that the Ukrainian episcopate wish to
overcome these divisions. There is love in their hearts for those who
have fallen away, and they are certainly suffering together with all
from these divisions’, His Holiness stressed.
Patriarch Kirill expressed gratitude to all the Local Orthodox Church
and personally to the Primate of the Romanian Church for their support
of the canonical Church in Ukraine and for the high level of bilateral
cooperation in many areas.
His Holiness also expressed confidence that the common celebration
devoted to the centenary of the restoration of the Patriarchate in the
Russian Orthodox Church would contribute to further consolidation of
pan-Orthodox interaction, cooperation and unity.
In his turn, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel thanked His Holiness for
the opportunity to meet and said he was delighted to participate in the
centenary celebrations. ‘We are impressed by the statements made by
representatives of Orthodox Churches at the session of the Sacred
Bishops’ Council’, His Beatitude said, ‘We thus commemorated the
suffering which the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox Churches
had endured. We saw a move from crucifixion to resurrection, a Church
persecuted to a Church reborn’.
‘The Russian Orthodox Church gives us an example of the impossibility
for the Church to be destroyed, for if a Church is crucified it is
resurrection that awaits her’, His Beatitude attested, ‘Thus we become
bolder for continuing our work because we face many challenges in the
contemporary society’.
In October 2017, Patriarch Kirill visited the Romanian
Orthodox
Church. During their talk, the two primates discussed among other things
the problem of secularization of the society and crisis of the family.
‘As we discussed in Bucharest, the main problem for the society today is
secularization, which means a change in the mentality and order of
human life in the way as if there is no God’, His Beatitude said, ‘I
think, at our further pan-Orthodox meetings we should speak of the
family and secularisation’
.
‘The Bishops’ Council of the Russian Church’, Patriarch Daniel
continued, ‘has adopted documents concerning the family and monastic
life. The crisis of the family affects the life of monasteries, too.
There are two families: the family as a marital union and the pastoral
spiritual family in a monastery. The church family is that of all the
Orthodox Churches who are in communion with one another’.
His Beatitude Daniel gave a high value to the social work of the
Russian Orthodox Church and personally His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.
Under their discussion were also issues concerning further cooperation
between the two Churches including students exchange and other topics of
the bilateral relations. They also dealt with some aspects of
pan-Orthodox relationships.
In conclusion, the sides exchanged tokens of the meeting. Patriarch
Kirill presented the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church with a
commemorative set of pectoral icons, a canvass depicting Russian
Patriarchs and a centenary medal ‘In Memory of the Centenary of
Patriarchate in the Russian Orthodox Church’.
Metropolitan Nifon was presented with a copy of St. Tikhon’s pectoral
icon and a centenary medal. Other members of the Romanian delegation
were presented with centenary medals.
His Beatitude Daniel presented the Primate of the Russian Orthodox
Church with a set of Eucharistic vessels and a photo-album devoted to
the visit made by Patriarch Kirill to Romania in October 2017.
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