Russians honor Ambassador Bocan-Harchenko, Vucic honors advisor to Russian Patriarch Kirill

Metropolitan Anthony Sevryuk of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation during his stay in Belgrade and, with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, presented the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, 3rd Class, to Ambassador Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko.

“He received the Order for his attention and contribution to the development of Church-State relations and on the occasion of his 65th birthday,” mospat.ru reports.

“The cordial and substantive conversation underlined the mutual satisfaction over the fraternal cooperation of the two Churches and the two identical peoples,” the Serbian Orthodox Church website reads.

Earlier, Serbian Patriarch Porfirije received Russian Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, Sputnik.rs reported.

Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Adviser to Patriarch Kirill of Russia, came with the Russian Metropolitan, and Bishop Irinej of Bačka also attended the meeting at the Patriarchate.

“The interlocutors paid particular attention to overcoming the challenges facing the Orthodox Church,” says the Serbian Orthodox Church website.

It is not stated exactly what these “challenges” are.

A separate communiqué from the Moscow Patriarchate says that Sevryuk and Balashov arrived on a “working visit” from 4 to 6 March and “with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and at the invitation of the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije”.

They discussed “issues of Russian-Serbian relations and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church in strengthening them”.

They state that the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate was received by the Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs in the technical mandate, Nikola Selakovic.

Selakovic “By order of President Aleksandar Vucic, in the Patriarchate Hall”, presented Archpriest Balash with the Order of the Serbian Flag, 2nd Class – “for his personal merits in developing and strengthening cooperation and friendly relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation”. The Serbian Patriarch Porfirije was also present.

/The Geopost