On January 20, 2006, Sergey Nikolayevich Goncharov, adviser-envoy of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the People's Republic of China, in the presence of senior diplomats, presented to Andrey Borisovich Gavrilin, General representative of the Russian company Winkler, an award of by Russian Orthodox Church St. Sergius of Radonezh (III class). The Most Holy Patriarch of Russia, ALEXY, honoured A.B. Gavrilin with the church's award for his many years of providing regular help to restore the Martha-Mary charity cloister, founded by Great Princess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna, whose precious relics were located within the walls of the Russian Spiritual Mission in China during the 1920s. The award was transmitted to the Embassy of the Russian Federation through the Moscow Patriarchates Department of External Church Relations with the aid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Congratulating A. B. Gavrilin, councilor-envoy S. N. Goncharov has noted that the Church award given to our compatriot living for a long time now in Beijing represents a testimony to the fruitfulness of the efforts taken on for years by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Beijing in cooperation with the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate for the purpose of organizing the pastoral care of our compatriots in China and keeping on the historical memory of the Russian Spiritual Mission in China.
According to his opinion, it is important that not only spiritual comfort but even visible signs from the Lord are granted to those people who struggle to preserve our historical heritage and are governed in their personal and social life by Christian commandments.
In his response Andrei Gavrilin said that he accepts the bestowed award, considering it to be undeserved appreciation made by the Hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church of his minor efforts. "Belonging to the rank of recipients of Church honors obliges me to perform even more strenuously my filial duty towards the Mother-Church in the future, thus contributing to the social wellbeing of both Russia and China", - he remarked.