President of Pridnestrovie Yevgeny Shevchuk meets with Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Relations between Church and Society Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin. Taking part in the meeting was Deputy Chairperson of the Government of the PMR for International Cooperation – Foreign Minister Nina Shtanski, Minister of Social Protection and Labour of the PMR Oksana Bulanova, and Archbishop Savva of Tiraspol and Dubossary.
The Head of State asked to convey gratitude to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia for Vladyka’s attention paid to the PMR. “The believers of our country remember the visit of His Holiness. It was a significant event for all of us, it has happened for the first time in the history of Pridnestrovie,” - stressed Yevgeny Shevchuk.
The Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Relations between Church and Society congratulated the President on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Republic. “People of different ages, social strata come together numerously to share that joy, to witness their historical, cultural, valuable, civilizational choice. This is an indication for all who came here that the people make their choice in favour of self-determined historical development, their values which they do not want to give up for anybody. The event with participation of a large number of people has confirmed it”, - said the Archpriest.
Vsevolod Chaplin also said that “people in Pridnestrovie are committed to traditional values - the values of Orthodoxy.” “This land has a powerful Orthodox tradition. It is important that these values be formed, defended and approved at the level of the whole people, government decisions, and national consciousness. And it seems that there are all the conditions for it,”- noted the Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society.
The meeting discussed a number of issues related to cooperation between the state and the church. “Their partnership, cooperation in solving social problems in order to maintain a free, independent value-oriented choice of the people are very important. Dialogue and cooperation between the state and the church here is very worthy. I hope that cooperation will continue,” - said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin.
