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| Photo Russian Orthodox Church |
Taking part in the meeting, which was held at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in St. Daniel’s Monastery, were Archbishop Avak Asadourian of the Iraqi diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and General Secretary of the Council of Christian Church Leaders of Iraq; Metropolitan Ghattaz Hazim of Baghdad and Kuwait, Antiochian Orthodox Church; Archbishop Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf of Mosul, Kirkuk and the Kurdistan autonomous region, Syriac Orthodox Church; Bishop Mar Abrs Youkhanna of Erbil, Assyrian Church of the East; Archpriest Sami Younan Alfred Ibraheem, Antiochian Orthodox Church; and the Rev. Mina Alorshalemy, representative of the Coptic Church in Iraq.
Also taking part in
the meeting were Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov) DECR secretary for
inter-Christian relations; hieromonk Kirill (Peregudin) and Mr. Ruslan
Akhmatkhanov of the same secretariat; Cor-Bishop Samano Odisho, rector
of Assyrian church Mat Maryam in Moscow; and Ms Yu. Lapshina from the
Middle East and North Africa department of the Russian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greeted the guests
and shared with them his reminiscences of his visit to Iraq in 2002. “I
visited Iraq, Mosul churches, monasteries and saw the rich spiritual
life of your people. Soon after military forces invaded your country and
life has changed. Economic sanctions followed, and Iraq underwent many
bitter trials.”
The Primate of the Russian Church regrets that
Iraq was not the sole victim of foreign aggression. He noted that in the
present geopolitical context a state that makes world or regional
impact often invades a weaker state that bringing chaos, migration
crisis and humanitarian catastrophe. “Iraq is the most dramatic example.
When I visited Iraq I was told that over a million and a half
Christians lived there. Now they say that the number of Christians has
decreased ten times,” His Holiness added and continued to say: “We
highly appreciate the fact that despite the current difficult situation
our Church develops relations with Christians in the Middle East.
Recently, under my instructions, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk,
head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church
Relations, visited Damascus and took part in the high-level
interreligious conference. It is very important to develop
inter-Christian relations thus supporting Christians in the Middle East
countries. Certainly, we attach great importance to the programs of
humanitarian aid to your region. It concerns Syria in particular, but we
are prepared to be active in Iraq as well.”
His Holiness
mentioned a visit of hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), a representative of the
Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and Cor-Bishop Samano Odisho, a
representative of the Assyrian Church of the East in Russia to Iraq last
March with the purpose of making cooperation of the ROC with Christian
Churches and other religious communities in Iraq more active.
The
Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed great concern about the
destruction of Christian holy places in Iraq. He said: ‘We must do
anything possible to restore the Christian holy sites in the Middle East
and to bring back Christians to Iraq, Syria, and other places where
they have lives and which they had to flee due to war and civil
conflicts.”
Participants in the meeting expressed special
gratitude for the visit to the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and to H.E.
Maxim Maximov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Russian Federation to the Republic of Iraq and to the Embassy staff.
In
conclusion of the meeting His Holiness Patriarch Kirill underscored
solidarity of the Russian Orthodox Church with the people of Iraq and
said that contacts should be maintained which will allow implementing
the concrete projects of help.