His Grace has quite a following (gifted musician, eloquent speaker, learned scholar). He was until now an outspoken voice of Orthodoxy to Western Europe. He now moves to the very influential position of mouth-piece to the Patriarchate itself.
Moscow, March 31, (Interfax) - Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria has been appointed head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.
On Tuesday, the Holy Synod "unanimously approved Bishop Hilarion as chairman of the DECR, Patriarchate spokesman priest Vladimir Vigilyansky told reporters after the meeting.
"He will now being transferred to Moscow from abroad," the spokesman said.
Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, Patriarchate secretary for relations with other Orthodox Churches, and priest Georgy Ryabykh, acting secretary for liaison between the church and public, were appointed deputy chairmen of the Department for External Church Relations.
The Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, a former deputy chairman of the DECR, was appointed Patriarchate secretary for the church's institutions abroad.
Priest Antony Ilyin was put in charge of the church's relations with European international organizations.
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Future Patriarch-in-training?
ReplyDeleteThe OCA did have him in the running until he pulled himself out for reasons of wanting to make keep the OCA as a separate, American entity from the Russian Church.
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