Israel ready to return church property in Jerusalem to Russia

Moscow, June 14, Interfax - Israel has generally agreed to transfer the St. Sergius Metochion and the building of the Russian church mission in Jerusalem to Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a Thursday press conference in Moscow in comments on a meeting of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), whose honorary member he is.

"We have been in consultations with the Israelis for three years, and a basic agreement on the transfer of the St. Sergius Metochion and the building of the Russian church mission has been finally reached," he said.

Details of the transfer are being discussed, the minister said. "We have the political will to solve the problem," he added.

Lavrov mentioned the return of Russian property in Jerusalem at the opening of the IOPS meeting. He voiced hope that the society will assist in the return of Russian real estate in the Holy Land.

"The society has done its best to create a piece of Russia outside the mother country," he said.

The Foreign Ministry highly values the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church and, personally, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II, to the revival of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, Lavrov said.