The main aim of Metropolitan Laurus' visit to Russia that started on May 14 was to hold talks with Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia on the ways of overcoming the tragic split of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) that was the consequence of the 1917 revolution and the civil war in 1920s.
The meeting of the Hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia resulted in a firm expression of a common desire to restore the Communion contacts and canonical unity inside the Russian Orthodox Church. Further steps of the negotiating process were outlined.
Besides, during the visit, Metropolitan Laurus and the ROCOR delegation members made a pilgrimage to Russian shrines. They prayed at the Patriarch's divine services in Moscow and the Moscow region; in particular, they, together with Alexis II, laid a stone into the foundation of the future church of New Russian Martyrs and Confessors at the Butovo firing range in the Moscow region. They bowed to the shrines of the Yekaterinburg Diocese, where the family of the last Russian Emperor were martyred in 1918. They visited Sarov, Diveyevo and Kursk, cities related to the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov, as well as St. Petersburg.
During this pilgrimage, the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia met with bishops and priests of the ROC and with local secular authorities' representatives.
"We believe that this trip enriched the idea of the delegation members about how the revival of church life in Russia is taking place, what the relations between the Church and society, Church and the state are," said archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the secretary for inter-Orthodox relations of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Church Relations.
