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"The Experience of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Enriches Our Whole Church"

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk

During a short break in the work of the Inter-Council Presence, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations and permanent member of the Holy Synod, answered questions from Deacon Andrei Psarev.

Vladyka, how can the ROCOR make a positive contribution to the Russian Church as a whole?

Well, above all I have to express the joy, which accompanies all my encounters with the clergy, bishops, and laity of the Church Abroad because this is the joy of recaptured fellowship. Despite the time passed since 2007, this joy does not diminish. And we rejoice in the opportunity to engage with our brethren in the Church Abroad We especially rejoice, of course, in every opportunity to concelebrate - in joint prayer and joint Communion, because over the course of really 80 years we were deprived of this. And I think that the Russian Church Abroad brings her important and weighty contribution now to the development of our church life, because many traditions have been preserved in the Russian diaspora that were preserved to a lesser degree in some other parts of our Church. And I think that ROCOR's experience of service in heterodox surroundings, in difficult and cramped conditions, of course, substantially enriches our whole Church.

Metr. Hilarion at a luncheon with members of ROCOR canonization committee in Moscow on November 19, 2014