On May 12, 2022, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, met in the Cyprus capital Nicosia with His Beatitude Chrysostomos, Archbishop of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus.
Metropolitan Hilarion is in Cyprus with a blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to participate in the Orthodox Pre-Assembly of the World Council of Churches.
The DECR chairman was invited by the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus to dinner, during which they exchanged opinions about prospects of the inter-Orthodox relations and the bilateral contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, which have been exacerbated after the Eucharistic communion was discontinued with Archbishop Chrysostomos and a several hierarchs who recognized in 2020 the legitimacy of the schismatic community in Ukraine. The Archbishop reminded Metropolitan Hilarion of the mediatory efforts he had made to help settle the Ukrainian issue and of his trips to Local Orthodox Churches to discuss this problem. The interlocutors also dealt with a few other matters of mutual concern.
