Pope Twardos puts four dimensions of the relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church
Pope Twadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Annunciation, expressed his pleasure to hold a meeting between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo and also for the good development of the relationship between our Churches.
Pope Twardos laid four dimensions for the growth of relations with the Russian Church and said:
1. Reciprocal visits
As I have said many times before, our relationship like the Cross begins with a love relationship in Christ, and Christ builds between us this relationship. We are now building this relationship through the Russian delegations of monks and monasteries coming here to visit our administration and our old churches, as well as the Coptic bishops who went to visit Russia, the old places, the monasteries and the many churches there. Thus begins the first step in our relationship with love and exchange of visits.
2. Mutual study of the doctrine of each church
The second step is to study the history, tradition and heritage of each church in order to gain more understanding so as to be more understanding of what the Russian Church is and what the Coptic Church is. It is very important that this happens through study as well as through mutual visits.
3. Dialogue with the Russian Church
The third step is through dialogues and meetings between the delegations of both churches. I recall that during our first visit to His Holiness Kirill, during our first meeting, we discussed four dimensions of cooperation with each other. The first dimension is by monks or monasteries, the second is through teaching the clergy – theological education, the third is through the social level, the fourth is through the theological level.
Dialogue is very important, both here and in Russia, because dialogue also helps us to build this understanding between each other.
4. Mutual prayer
For the fourth step is prayer, we must pray for each other, we must pray for Christian unity, and we must pray for the knowledge of the church, traditions, daily life or social life of each church.
Pope Twardos thanked the Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch of the Russian Church, for inviting him to visit Egypt.
Related topics
Russian Coptic Relations
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