On 20 November 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, arrived in Paris with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and All Russia and was met by Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (Patriarchate of Constantinople) at Charles de Gaulle airport.
They proceeded to the premises of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Metropolia in France, where the Coordinating Committee of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches holds its meeting. Metropolitan Hilarion takes part in it as the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate.
On November 21, the feast day of the Presentation in the Temple of the Birth-Giver of God (according to the new style), members of the Coordinating Committee prayed at the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St Stephen.
Metropolitan Hilarion is accompanied by Hieromonk Antoniy (Sevryuk), secretary of the Administration of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes in Italy.