Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warmly welcomed the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians today (May 25, 2010), hailing improving ties between Russia's powerful church and its ancestor faith.
"The visit of your holiness is a significant event and, beyond all doubt, it will help strengthen the dialogue which always linked the two sister churches," Medvedev told Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, according to The Moscow Times website.
Medvedev said Bartholomew's visit was "especially important, taking into account the fact that Russia is a country where the majorty of the population is Christian Orthodox in its faith."
Religion experts said that the significance of Bartholomew's visit to Moscow could not be overestimated.
"This is an extraordinary visit," said Father Mark Arey, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, an expert on relations between Moscow and Constantinople.
"It signals a real synergy for world Orthodoxy and shows they (the patriarchs) are working toward solutions of the problems they have."
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