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06 November 2009, 21:38Churches vow to work for better relations between Russia, Georgia
Baku, November 6, Interfax - The Primates of the Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches have reached an agreement on Friday to make every effort to improve relations between Russia and Georgia and to solve the Abkhazia and South Ossetia problems, the Russian Church representative said.
Patriarch Kirill and Patriarch Ilia II came to the agreement at a meeting in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.
"It was pointed out that the friendship, mutual understanding, and cordial and fraternal relations between the two Churches are guarantees that relations between the two peoples and states will be restored on the full scale with time," Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, a senior Russian Church official, told reporters in comments on the meeting.
At the meeting, Patriarch Kirill compared the Russian and Georgian Churches to "two locomotives that will lead the relations between the two states from the impasse that that have found themselves in" but he added that this would take time, the priest said.
Father Nikolay, who is deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations, said "the two Patriarchs met as two old friends" though it was their first meeting after Patriarch Kirill was elected.
They also discussed issues of church life in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and general Orthodox matters, the priest said.
"We will continue to hold consultations on those and other matters that are of mutual interest to the Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches," Fr. Nikolay said. |
