On March 6, 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, rector of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate and Doctoral School and chairman of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission, gave a press conference at the conference hall of the memorial church of All Saints in Minsk. It was devoted to the visit he made to Belarus from March 4-6 with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and at the invitation of Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus.
Metropolitan Hilarion shared impressions from his visit to churches and monasteries in Belarus and answered numerous questions from journalists.
When in Belarus, Metropolitan Hilarion visited the Minsk diocesan administration, the Belarus presidential administration, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, the St. Elizabeth’s Monastery, the Memorial Church of All Saints, the House of Mercy in Minsk with its church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, the Zhirovitsy Monastery of the Dormition, the Minsk Theological Academy and the Belarus State University’s Institute of Theology. In the Minsk Theological Academy, he was awarded the degree of doctor of theology honoris causa.
During his visit to Belarus, the DECR chairman was accompanied by Archpriest Vladimir Shmaliy, pro-rector of the SS Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate and Doctoral School and secretary of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission, as well as Mr. L. Sevastyanov, executive director of the Gregory the Theologian Charity, and sub-deacon Alexander Yershov.