Russia and the USA have far more points of contact than it might seem at first glance, noted the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, answering on the program “The Church and the World” a question from Rossiya 24 TV host E. Gracheva about his expectations for the upcoming meeting of the Russian and American presidents.
“It is enough to recall that we are neighbors: we are separated by only four kilometers of the Bering Strait — a distance that one brave Russian woman swam across,” the hierarch emphasized.
He also pointed to their common Christian heritage: “Not long ago I reread Metropolitan Kliment’s book about Orthodoxy in Alaska. How much labor our Russian missionaries put into preaching among the local population! The Russian Spiritual Mission in Alaska operated for more than a hundred years and bore much good fruit.”
“But perhaps the most important thing to say in the present situation is that Russia and the USA, as two great powers often called superpowers, bear direct responsibility for preserving peace throughout the world,” said Metropolitan Hilarion.
The Metropolitan pointed out that the fragile balance maintained to this day rests primarily on constructive relations among several major players — the USA, Russia, China and a number of other countries.
“If these balances are maintained, if countries are able to uphold their interests without destroying peace throughout the world, then perhaps this will be the most important thing that can be achieved both at the upcoming meeting of the two presidents and in the subsequent negotiations to be held at the highest and other levels,” Metropolitan Hilarion believes.
DECR Communication Service