On 29 March 2012, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the Revd. John Upton, President of the Baptist World Alliance, the Revd. Hans Guderian, President of the European Baptist Federation, and representatives of the Euro-Asian Federation of the Unions of Evangelical Christian Baptists. The meeting took place at the Patriarch’s working residence, Chisty Lane, Moscow.
Attending the meeting on the Russian Orthodox side were Hegumen Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Archpriest Dimitry Sizonenko, DECR acting secretary for inter-Christian relations; and Yu. Zudov, executive secretary of the Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee of the CIS and Baltic countries.
His Holiness greeted the guests and noted with satisfaction that despite considerable theological differences, the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Baptist communities on a number of fundamental anthropological issues are presently close.
Revd. Upton cordially greeted His Holiness the Patriarch on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance and thanked him for the steadfast witness to the incontestable truths which the Russian Orthodox Church bears in Russia and abroad.
The participants in the meeting exchanged opinions on the alarming tendencies towards the ousting of Christian values and religious symbols from the life of society.
Also discussed was cooperation in the Christian Interconfessional Committee of the CIS and Baltic countries. The participants noted the importance of inviting many representatives of the traditional confessions of Russia and of neighbouring countries to discuss socially important problems and to issue documents on the results of discussions that would present their position to the Russians, the Americans and the Europeans.