Ceremonial Reception given to His Holiness the Catholicos of East by the Russian Orthodox Church..

On August 28-30, 2019, the delegates of the Malankar Orthodox Church of India visited St. Petersburg. The delegation included: the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Malankar Church, Metropolitan Zakharia Mar Nikolovos, the secretary of the Department for External Church Relations, Priest Abraham Thomas and the head of the Protocol Service of the Malankara Catholicos, priest Aswin Fernandez. The guests were accompanied by Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, and R.A. Akhmatkhanov.
Guests had the opportunity to visit the Kazan and St. Isaac’s Cathedrals of St. Petersburg, the Peter and Paul Fortress, as well as the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on the Blood and the State Hermitage Museum. On August 28, the delegation attended the festive service in honor of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra, after which the communion with the governor of the monastery, Bishop Nazarene of Kronstadt, took place. On August 29, the delegation visited the chapel in the name of St. Blessed Xenia of Petersburg and was received by the rector of the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk at the Smolensk cemetery, Archpriest Victor of Moscow. At the end of the visit to the northern capital, representatives of the Malankar Church visited the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent and met with the Mother Superior Sofia (Silina).