On 2 June 2017, the 4th election conference of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS) and grand meeting dedicated to its 135th anniversary took place at the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow2.
Mr. Sergei Stepashin, the IOPS chairman, welcomed the participants and read out greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Video with greetings from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was shown.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, head of the IOPS Committee of honorary members, took part in grand meeting, who addressed the participants and presented the IOPS with a copy of “Christ with Martha and Mary” painting by Semiradsky.
Mr. Stepashin thanked His Holiness for attending the ceremony and presented him with a painting “The Holy Sepulchre” by Ms Anastasia Artemieva, a student of the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute.
Among those attending grand meeting were Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna as member of the Presidium; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the DECR chairman; his deputy Archpriest Nikolai Balashov; hierarchs and clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Concert and reception followed the official part of the meeting.