Washington, D.C., October 22, 2019
Photo: pravmir.ru
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, the Chairman of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, in Washington D.C. today.
The public schedule published on the Department of State’s website reads: “3:30 p.m. Secretary Pompeo meets with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, at the Department of State. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE).”
Met. Hilarion was in New York City over the weekend for the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the beginning of the ministry of St. Raphael (Hawaweeny) in North America and the centenary of St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese in Norther America.
Talks will likely focus on the ongoing Ukrainian Church crisis, as the U.S. State Department’s role in supporting the creation of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and in pressuring hierarchs, especially in Greece, to recognize the OCU is well known.
Secretary Pompeo was also recently in Greece, where he signed a new defense pact, allowing the U.S. to expand militarily in Greece. A few days after his visit, the Greek Church suddenly announced that it would hold an extraordinary session of the Bishops’ Council to address the Ukrainian issue, at which the bishops recognized Pat. Bartholomew’s right to grant autocephaly in Ukraine.
Pompeo also met with the primate of the schismatic “Macedonian Orthodox Church” earlier this month.
