[World Council of Churches] His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and World Council of Churches Acting General Secretary Ioan Sauca met on Oct. 17 in Moscow, discussing how churches are called to be peacemakers.

In addition to a public conversation, Kirill and Sauca had their own private audience to discuss Orthodox matters.

Kirill welcomed the guests, saying: “I appreciate that you have come to Russia in these hard times to meet with me and my people and talk about the difficult international relations we live in and are confronted with today, which naturally affects our inter-church relations as well.”

Sauca thanked Kirill for the meeting and said: “The members of our fellowship are looking with great interest and hope to this visit,” explaining that the WCC delegation came to Moscow because of a mandate from the WCC central committee to visit WCC member churches with “bleeding wounds.” Those visits have included the Middle East — Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine — and then Ukraine, and now Russia.

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