ECUMEMISM " "
At the invitation of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, is paying a visit to Russia from 15 to 19 October. The archbishop is accompanied by Régine Maire, delegate of the French Bishops’ Conference for ecumenism. As reported by the diocese of Lyon, the archbishop spent Sunday 16 October together with Metropolitan Kirill at Smolensk. He then left for Moscow where he visited the church of Christ the Saviour and the Kremlin. In the Russian capital Cardinal Barbarin is having a series of meetings with leading exponents of the Patriarchate of Moscow. A visit to the Theological Academy is also planned. On the other hand, a meeting with Patriarch Alexis II is not envisaged. It is says a press release put out by the diocese of Lyon a “brotherly and friendly visit since Metropolitan Kirill and Archbishop Barbarin got to know each other many years ago, before either of them were invested with the high offices they now hold. But they know, and they hope, that, thanks to the responsibility they each have, a meeting between them may bear fruit at the ecumenical level”.
