On 17 September 2013, within the framework of the 10th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, dedicated to the theme “Russia’s Diversity for the Modern World”, the session on Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue as a Reflection of the Spiritual Condition of Society took place at the Valdai Monastery of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God. Among those delivering reports at the session were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Mr. Damir Mukhetdinov, the first deputy chair of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of European Russia; Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar; famous Polish film director Krzystof Zanussi; Prof. Tarek Heggy, writer and political scientist from Egypt; journalist Serge Schmemann; and Mr. Sergei Chapnin, editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The speakers answered questions from the participants of the Valdai Club. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations, Mr. Vladimir Legoyda, chairman of the Synodal Information Department, and Mr. Aron Gurevich, Chief Rabbi of the Russian Army, addressed those present with short speeches.
