On July 4 as part of the World Summit of Religious Leaders Patriarch ALEXY met with the Chinese delegation composed of the Head of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs affiliated to the government of the People’s Republic of China, Ye Xiaowen, the president of the Chinese Islamic Association, Chen Guangyuan, the deputy chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the bishop of Kunming Ma Yinlin.
The Head of the Russian Orthodox Church warmly greeted the Chinese guests. In the course of the ensuing conversation the importance of the development of links between the traditional religious organizations of Russia and China was stressed. His Holiness, the Patriarch, underlined that the desire for this sort of cooperation was already mentioned in the document approved by the state leaders of the two countries in 2004, during the visit of the President of the Russian Federation in China.
From his part Ye Xiaowen highly appreciated the religious forum held in Russia, stressing the role of the believers in the harmonious wellbeing of the world. What is especially important, as stated by the chairman of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, is that the results of the work of this significant inter-religious forum will be presented before the leaders of G-8 thus bringing to them the voice of the world religious community.
His Holiness, the Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia ALEXY, discussed on wide array of questions including those connected with the status of Orthodox faithful and the Orthodox Church in China.
It was also mentioned that some issues discussed during the consultations between the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Chinese state organs are being successfully resolved in the present moment. Among them is the question about the construction of the Holy Dormition church at the premises of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Beijing, the prospects for the newly built Orthodox church in the town of Erguna as well as other issues.
The participants in the meeting expressed their intention for continuation of the dialog aimed at the satisfactory resolution of the other discussed questions too.
In the meeting, the chairman of the Division for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad KYRILL, and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the Russian Federation, Liu Guchang, also took part.