Metropolitan Hilarion: Imposing sanctions will not affect the life of the Russian Orthodox Church

DECR Communication Service: 09.05.2022.

Speaking on the air of the TV program “The Church and the World”, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, at a request of the program anchor Ms. E. Gracheva, commented on the information that a proposal was made in the European Union to impose sanctions on His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The hierarch said that no sanction would prevent the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church from continuing his work “aimed at the consolidation of the Russian society, at the pastoral care of the whole multi-million flock of the Russian Orthodox Church and at the urgent establishment of peace between the fraternal Slavic nations”.

Metropolitan Hilarion also stated that the imposition of sanctions would neither affect his work as head of the Department for External Church Relation of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Not all the countries are closed. There are many countries which can be entered freely”, the hierarch stated, “We use this opportunity if necessary. Secondly, opportunities to come to Russia are not closed for guests from Local Churches, as well as non-Orthodox Churches and Christian associations. Thirdly, there is a multitude of ways for remote communication used, among others, by the Patriarch and other heads of Churches. That is to say, there are technical opportunities today to allow direct communication without travelling abroad”.

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Metropolitan Hilarion: Imposing sanctions will not affect the life of the Russian Orthodox Church

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons