https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-general-secretary-visits-moscow-and-patriarch-kirill
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay is visiting Moscow this week, meeting with H.H. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia, and representatives from the largest WCC member church.
The WCC delegation consists of WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, accompanied by Peter Prove, WCC director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs; Prof. Dr Vasile-Octavian Mihoc, WCC programme executive for Ecumenical Relations and Faith and Order; and Fr Mikhail Gundiaev, the Russian Orthodox Church’s representative to the WCC.
The visit is taking place on request from the WCC central committee, and is part of a series of visits that has already included Ukraine, and now Russia. The visits are meant to build bridges of peace and reconciliation through encounters and dialogues and to end military conflicts, wars, and violence.
A WCC delegation visited Ukraine 10-13 May, undertaking an intensive series of consultations in Kyiv with church leaders, Ukrainian government officials, and others. There, the WCC delegation met with senior leaders of both the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, two churches whose longstanding dispute has intensified since the Russian invasion.
The WCC will now proceed with work towards a roundtable dialogue meeting later this year.
WCC leadership delegation meets with churches in Ukraine (WCC news release, 12 May 2023)
The WCC delegation met representatives of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations on 11 May in Kyiv. Photo: WCC