The following statement was composed and sent to Baltimore City Hall on May 2, 2015, after Baltimore-area clergy and laity met to discuss the city’s recent turmoil in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray.
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, local clergyman and laity collected and sent over 7 tons of goods, medicine and food to the residents of Southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.
During a tour round the monastery the ambassador visited the Holy Trinity Cathedral where the Holy Relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh rest.
Among the demonstrators was Wilfried Handl – an Austrian man who formerly for 27 years had been an active Scientologist and in 2002 left this organization and became a staunch critic of the sect.
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill staff members of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry for the fifth and sixth times visited the dioceses situated in the Southeast Ukraine.