His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with H.E. Tim Barrow, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Great Britain to Russia. They were joined in the meeting by Ms Helen Watson, first secretary of the Embassy; hegumen Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); and archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries.
His Holiness and Ambassador Barrow exchanged greetings.
During the talk, His Holiness mentioned that the first person from abroad who paid an official visit to the Moscow Patriarchate after the Revolution was Archbishop Cyril Forster Garbett of York. It happened in 1943, during the Great Patriotic War. “Ambassadors accredited in Moscow did not visit the leaders of our Church, and that was the first contact with the Embassy of Great Britain. We remember it and appreciate good relations between the Moscow Patriarchate represented by the Department for External Church Relations and the Embassy of Great Britain,” the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said, and continued by expressing his hope for the development of these relations with the direct participation of Ambassador Barrow. He wished the diplomatic representative of the United Kingdom success in his mission “for the benefit of relations between our nations.”