March 11,
On March 10, 2011, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, visited the residence of the US Ambassador in Moscow to meet with US Vice-President Joseph Biden who has come to Russia for a working visit. Metropolitan Hilarion was accompanied by Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood), representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The DECR chairman and the US vice-president had a talk in which Metropolitan Hilarion spoke about the Russian Orthodox Church and its external relations including interrelations with Orthodox jurisdictions in the American continent and about the life of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in the USA.
Mr. Joseph Biden expressed a wish to meet with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk during one of his next visits to the USA so that they could have a more detailed talk on the issues under discussion.
The DECR chairman presented the US vice-president with a copy of his book Orthodox Witness in Today’s World in English as a token of the meeting.