On November 16, 2021, concluding his working trip to the United States of America, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, visited the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in New York, where he met with Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, V.A. Nebenzya.
Also taking part in the meeting were the Deputy Permanent Representatives D.A. Polyansky and D.S. Chumakov and the person responsible for the work of the Representation of the World Russian People’s Council at the UN, Hegumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov).
During the conversation, Metropolitan Hilarion and V.A. Nebenzya discussed matters of mutual interest in the area of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN.
Then the hierarch met with diplomats and staff of the Mission. Metropolitan Hilarion briefly described the main areas of the external activity of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the current situation in world Orthodoxy, destabilized by the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine. The archpastor expressed satisfaction with the high level of cooperation between the Church and the diplomats representing Russia at the United Nations.
Metropolitan Hilarion answered numerous questions from those present. At the end of the meeting, V.A. Nebenzya warmly thanked the DECR chairman for the opportunity to meet and expressed the common wish to continue communicating in this format during the archpastor’s working visits to the USA. Metropolitan Hilarion wished the Permanent Representative and the entire diplomatic corps of Russia’s Mission to the UN strength and God’s help in their responsible service to the Fatherland.
That evening Metropolitan Hilarion departed for Moscow. At New York’s international airport the hierarch was seen off by the clergy of St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York; a representative of the Consul General of Russia in New York, I. Popov; and the Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, who on behalf of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon thanked Metropolitan Hilarion for the fraternal and constructive communication during the visit.