Russian Patriarch and Israel's Sharon Meet in Moscow
Episcopal News Service. October 18, 2002 [2002-241-12]
Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church met with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon during Sharon's recent two-day visit to Moscow and expressed concern about Christian pilgrims being unable to visit holy sites in the Middle East.
'We are grieving for the victims of terrorist acts and military conflict which is borne by the peoples of Israel and Palestine,' Alexei told Sharon in a one-hour meeting at St. Daniel's Monastery, the patriarch's official residence. 'We are praying for peace in the Holy Land and ask of you ... to do everything possible for peace to be established in the Holy Land so that pilgrims could come to its holy sites without obstacles,' the patriarch said in remarks released to the press.
Alexei was also due to meet with a leading Palestinian politician, Mahmoud Abbas, the Moscow Patriarchate announced. This was apparently intended to underline the church's even-handed approach to the Holy Land. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, arrived in Moscow just as Sharon was leaving and was expected to meet Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov to discuss the results of Sharon's visit and to present the Palestinians' own demands for ending two years of conflict. Abbas is widely seen as a potential successor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In his meeting with Sharon, Alexei also brought up the issue of damage to Russian Orthodox church properties--a hotel in Bethlehem and monastery in Hebron--which resulted from Israeli military operations in the West Bank earlier this year. 'We welcome the efforts of representatives of all confessions--Christianity, Judaism and Islam--who speak for the peaceful solution to inter-ethnic problems in the Holy Land,' the patriarch said.