April 26, 2013
On 25 April 2013, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), currently on a working visit to Germany with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, visited Potsdam.
He was met at the Schloss Cecilienhof by Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, Head of the Royal House of Prussia, who gave a luncheon in honour of the high guest.
Metropolitan Hilarion told the Prince of Prussia about his visit to Leipzig timed to the centenary of the blessing of St. Alexius Memorial Church. He also told the Prince about the tragic times in the history of the Romanov dynasty in the 20th century; the glorification by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000 of the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II as passion-bearers, and about the attitude of the Church to the so-called Yekaterinburg remains.
The DECR chairman spoke about the place and role of traditional values in modern society and expressed his concern for a strong tendency towards undermining the fundamentals of the institute of family and marriage in certain European countries.
Taking part in the talk were also Archbishop Feofan of Berlin and Germany; Archbishop Longin of Klin, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany; archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries; Ms Michaela Blankart, director of the general administration of the House of Hohenzollern; and Mr. Ulrich Feldhahn, art curator of the Hohenzollern Palace.
Source: DECR
