Metropolitan Anthony, Chairman of the All-Union Russian Orthodox Church, arrived on an official visit to Ethiopia

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, began a three-day official visit to Ethiopia. The trip is taking place with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and at the invitation of the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Church to strengthen bilateral relations and inter-church dialog.

According to the Communication Service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the hierarch was met at the airport in Addis Ababa by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Ethiopia E.E. Terekhin and Senior Counselor of the Embassy A.S. Chesnakov. The first item on the program was a visit to the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Kiddist Selassie), where the Metropolitan was greeted by the co-chairman of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church, Archbishop Abuna Filipos of South Omo.

During his visit to the cathedral, the chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church Cathedral honored the memory of the last Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, visiting his tomb and the museum dedicated to him. Metropolitan Anthony also visited the burial places of the Princes of the Ethiopian Church and the memorial of Ethiopian New Martyrs who suffered for the faith in the XX century. Hieromonk Stephen (Igumnov), Secretary of the Russian Orthodox Church for Inter-Christian Relations, and Priest Alexander Ershov, Assistant to the Chairman, accompanied the Metropolitan on his trip.

The program of the visit promises to be rich: meetings with His Holiness Patriarch Abuna Matthias, members of the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Church and the leadership of the country are planned. In addition, the delegation will visit the Holy Trinity University and the Russian Red Cross Hospital in the capital, one of the oldest Russian medical institutions on the African continent.