“20 Years of Cooperation, 10 Rounds of Dialogue” Motto of Moscow Religious Dialogue
According to the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO), a preliminary meeting was recently held with the participation of Ghahraman Soleymani, the deputy of research and education of the organization and Arhimandrit Filaret, the deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations.
Reza Maleki, the Iranian cultural attaché in Russia and Dimitry Safonov, the head of the Sector for Interreligious Contacts of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, were also present at the meeting.
The participants stressed the necessity and importance of developing religious dialogue and cooperation between the two communities.
Referring to the history of relations and cooperation between Iran and the Orthodox Church during the past two decades, Soleymani expressed Iran’s readiness and willingness for boosting the cooperation.
He urged religious synergy between Islam and Christianity to solve the common problems of humanity, particularly in the region.
Filaret, for his part, hailed the continuation of the interfaith dialogues and noted that the 10th round of the event is very important given the conditions of the region and the spread of extremism.
The themes, dates and organization of the next round of the dialogue were also discussed at the meeting.
"The role of dialogue and cooperation among religions in a just and stable peace” was selected as the title of the 10th round of the dialogue.
The participants also discussed the organization of the first session of the Iran-Orthodox Church Joint Executive Committee in Tehran.
A book titled "Iran, The Cradle of Peaceful Religious Coexistence” was gifted to the deputy of the department at the end of the meeting.
