Religious Leaders to Gather for Moscow Summit

Zenit News Agency ^ | June 6, 2006

[NYer]

MOSCOW, JUNE 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A world summit of religious leaders will take place in Moscow in July, according to a bulletin of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The meeting was announced by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, during a recent interview with Hubert Colin de Verdière, secretary-general of France's foreign ministry.

It was reported by Europaica, the bulletin of the Orthodox Church's representation to the European Union.

Metropolitan Kirill hopes the July 4-5 summit will "play an important part in the prevention of extremism."

It is expected that the summit will bring together heads or representatives of the Orthodox, pre-Chalcedon and Roman Catholic Churches.

The summit's organizers are also counting on the presence of Chinese religious leaders, and heads of the German Lutheran Church, the U.S. National Council of Churches, and chief rabbis of Israel, the United States and European countries; Muslim leaders of the countries of the Community of Independent States, of the Middle East and of the Arabian Peninsula; and Buddhists, Hindus, and executives of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and other international religious organizations.

[NYer]

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