His Holiness Pope Tawadros II received at the Papal Residence in Cairo on Saturday evening a delegation of monks and nuns from the Russian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Dionysius of Voskresensk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchy, Abbot of Novospassky Monastery, Moscow.

This is during their current tour in Egypt, to visit a number of our Coptic monasteries and learn about the monastic lifestyle there.

H.H.welcomed the delegation, expressing his happiness at the exchange of monastic visits between the two churches, which contributes to supporting and strengthening relations between them.
His Holiness gave them a brief idea of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the various services in it, such as Sunday schools and youth service, as well as the youth services outside Egypt that began in recent years with the aim of linking them to the Mother Church and Egypt.
H.H. indicated that the Church pays special attention to serving the family, to the extent that the Holy Synod issued a recommendation to consider the year 2022 as the year of the family, meaning that education in the Church in general should focus on family issues, under the slogan “My Family is Holy” in order to confront the negative effects resulting from Social Media.
H.H. expressed, that in the spirit of brotherhood that binds the two Churches, his rejection of wars and violence in all its forms, stressing the necessity of adhering to the option of peace, according to the commandment of the Lord Christ, that we be peacemakers. H.H concluded: “We pray that peace will prevail everywhere and that the love of Christ will prevail in every heart.
From his end, Metropolitan Dionysius expressed his thanks to His Holiness the Pope for allocating time to receive him and his accompanying delegation, and conveyed the love and greetings of His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrle of Moscow and all Russia.
He expressed their happiness with this visit, as since their arrival in Egypt, they have felt love in all the places they went to.
He also referred to their feeling during the visit that the Coptic Church is the Church of Christ, which was made throughout the ages and is still making great sacrifices.
He commended the good relationship that binds the Russian and Coptic churches, for a long time, but which has witnessed great development and strengthening during the last ten years, thanks to the efforts of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and His Beatitude Patriarch Kyrell, and the committees that were formed for this purpose, which resulted in many joint activities.
At the end of the meeting, His Holiness expressed his wishes for them to visit our country and our church, which has ancient Christian roots, which enables it to build bridges with everyone.

H.H. reaffirmed that we pray for the peace that we ask from the King of Peace, and we strongly believe that prayer works miracles and that what is impossible with us is possible with God.

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