Communique
Episcopal News Service. August 4, 1999 [99-129]
The Most Revd Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA, made his first official visit to Russia and to the Russian Orthodox Church from 3 July to 7 July 1999, at the invitation of His Holiness Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The Presiding Bishop was accompanied by the Rt Revd Roger White, Bishop of Milwaukee and co-chair of the Joint Coordinating Committee for Relations of the Episcopal Church with the Russian Orthodox Church; the Rt Revd Richard F Grein, Bishop of New York, chair of the Episcopal Church's national committee for relations with the Orthodox churches in the USA and founder of the New York Diocesan Russia Committee; The Rt Revd Charles Keyser, Bishop for Military, Prison, and Hospital Chaplaincies of the Episcopal Church; The Revd Canon David Perry, Officer for Ecumenical Relations of the Episcopal Church; The Revd Canon Professor J Robert Wright, Theological Consultant to the Ecumenical Office of the Episcopal Church; The Revd Canon John Backus, Chair of the New York Diocesan Committee for Relations with the Orthodox Churches; Mr James Solheim, Director of the Office of News Information of the Episcopal Church; and Canon Mr James Rosenthal, Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion.
The delegation received a warm welcome from His Holiness the Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and all Russia, who gave lunch in honour of the Presiding Bishop and his associates at his residence in the Danilov Monastery. Discussions were held with His Eminence Kyrill, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the staff of the Department, after which dinner was hosted by His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill. The Presiding Bishop hosted a concluding dinner in honour of His Holiness the Patriarch.
Highlights of the visit included services of worship at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Epiphany, the Church of the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity at Khoroshevo, the Church of St. Metropolitan Peter on the Hill, and the Church of the Great Martyr St Catherine in the Fields (the representation of the Orthodox Church in America). Visits were also made to the Danilov Monastery, where the delegation stayed in the nearby hotel, to the Shrine and Relics of St Patriarch Tikhon, formerly Russian Archbishop in North America and later Patriarch of Moscow and confessor of the faith, at the Donskoy Monastery; to the Anglican Church of St Andrew, to the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, formerly bombed and where reconstruction is nearly complete; to the Moscow Theological Academy and the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where the Presiding Bishop venerated the Relics of St. Sergius. Discussions with the Department of External Church Relations, led by the Presiding Bishop and Metropolitan Kyrill, focused on five topics:
1.The recent situation in Yugoslavia and the question of how the two churches can collaborate to develop a common strategy and even a conference that will promote peace and the avoidance of such crises as Kosovo in the future;
2.A possible proposal for the re-structuring of the World Council of Churches in a way that is more fully reflective of the aspirations and commitments of the various confessional families that belong to it;
3.The Joint Coordinating Committee and its work for future relations between the two churches;
4.The next theological dialogue to be sponsored jointly between the two churches, which should focus on the New Millennium and better ways to understand and surmount the ideological differences that seem to exist between East and West; and
5.Matters of practical cooperation for the future, such as the exchange of students.
Overall, the discussions were conducted in the context of open exchange of views, and much hope for the future and ever-deepening relationships of the two churches in their friendship that has existed already for well over a century and began officially with the establishment of the Russo-Greek Committee by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the year 1862.
The Joint Coordinating Committee had its meeting on 6 July, and set the dates for its next meeting as 6-10 Mar 2000.