On 30 November 2011, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with Metropolitan Mar Gewargis of Baghdad and Iraq (the Assyrian Church of the East) who came to Moscow to take part in the Conference on the Freedom of Faith: the Problem of Discrimination and Persecution of Christians.
The hierarch of the Assyrian Church of the East thanked the Russian Orthodox Church for her attention to the needs of the Christian community in Iraq. Many Christians, who lived in Iraq for centuries, have left the country in recent years. These are the followers of the Assyrian Church of the East and of other Christian communities.
On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church the DECR chairman expressed solidarity with the persecuted Christians in Iraq. He informed Metropolitan Mar Gewargis of the recent statement on the growing manifestations of Christianophobia in the world made by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He also told him about the efforts the Moscow Patriarchate makes to draw the attention of politicians and the public to this problem.