RUSSIAN STATE DUMA DELEGATION TO GO TO ATHENS FOR 25TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY ON ORTHODOXY
Will discuss "problems of the unity of the Orthodox world and opposition to attempts to split it"
The session of the 25th general assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy will be held from 25 to 30 June in Athens. A delegation of the State Duma of the RF, led by the head of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society and Affairs of Public and Religious Associations, Sergei Gavrilov, will participate in the work of the assembly. This was reported by Interfax on 22 June.
The Russian delegation plans to meet with Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the chairman of the Greek parliament, Nikolaos Voutsis, and the head of the Greek church, Archbishop of Athens and all-Greece Ieronymos.
"In the course of the meeting, problems of the unity of the Orthodox world and opposition to attempts to split it by means of the use of pseudo-Christian projects will be discussed," S. Gavrilov reported.
He is talking about the discussion of the "Ukrainian church question," that is, the intention of the Constantinople patriarchate to grant a tomos concerning the autocephaly of the Orthodox church in Ukraine. The Moscow patriarchate is categorically opposed to the separation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (RPTsMP).
Official representatives of the Moscow
patriarchate have
frequently declared that in the event of the grant of autocephaly
to Kiev,
Moscow will proceed to a break with Constantinople, provoking a
"schism of
the Orthodox world" like the "Great Schism of 1054." The RPTsMP
also has frequently accused Kiev of "interference by the state in
ecclesiastical affairs." Obviously it is assumed that a discussion
of
Ukrainian autocephaly by bureaucrats of the Russian State Duma is
not such
interference. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 June 2018)
CHAIR OF DUMA COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY MAY HEAD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY ON ORTHODOXY
Interfax-religiia, 22 June 2018
The head of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society and Matters of Public and Religious Associations, Sergei Gavrilov, has been nominated as a candidate for the post of president of the general assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), a report from the press service of the Duma committee that was published on Friday says.
The 25th general assembly of the IAO will be held from 25 to 30 June in Athens; a delegation of the State Duma will participate in it.
"Within the framework of the event, elections of the president of the general assembly of IAO will be held. The head of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society and Matters of Public and Religious Associations, Sergei Gavrilov, is a candidate for the post of president of IAO," the report says.
The president of the IAO general assembly is elected for two years.
S. Gavrilov noted that in a quarter century the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy has become a significant international organization defending the role of Orthodoxy and Christian values in the international arena.
During the visit, the Russian delegation plans to meet with Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the chairman of the Greek parliament, Nikolaos Voutsis, and Archbishop of Athens and all-Greece Ieronymos.
"In the course of the meeting problems of the unity of the Orthodox world and opposition to attempts to split it by means of the use of pseudo-Christian projects and questions of consolidation in the struggle with terrorism will be discussed," S. Gavrilov said, whose words were quoted in the report. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 June 2018)
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