Russian and Coptic churches support restoration of air contacts between Russia and Egypt
MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - The Patriarchate of the Moscow Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church have called for the restoration of air links between Russia and Egypt.
"Parties to the dialogue voiced hope for the speedy restoration of direct air links between the two countries which would promote the development of joint projects in the sphere of pilgrimage," says a communique adopted at the end of the first ever session of the commission for dialogue between the Russian Orthodox and Coptic Churches, the website of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations says.
Russian participants in the session also met Coptic Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria.
He stressed that the intensification of relations between Russian and Coptic churches takes place in the context of the unification of the efforts of the Christian world aimed at supporting persecuted Christians.
"In the opinion of the head of the Coptic Church the decision to hold a meeting of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Pope Francis is a most important manifestation of this tendency," the report says.
A Russian Kogalymavia Airbus A321, en route from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on October 31, 2015, killing all 224 people on board.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 8, 2015, signed a decree on measures to ensure Russia's national security and protection of Russian citizens from criminal and other illegal actions, which suspends flights to Egypt.
On November 17, 2015, the Russian authorities classified the disaster as a terrorist attack, after concluding that it was caused by the explosion of a bomb aboard the airliner.