The Patriarch’s visit to start with Domodedovo
January 20, 2012 Moscow Domodedovo Airport will be welcoming Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and All Africa arriving with a flight from Cairo. At the airport the church official will be met by Illarion, Metropolitan of Volokalam, representative of the Patriarch of Alexandria in Moscow, Afanasiy, Metropolitan of Kirinskiy, Tikhon, Bishop of Podolsk.
January 21, the Patriarch will be presented the award “Outstanding activity for enhancing the unity of the Orthodox nations. Consolidation and advancement of the Christian values in the life of the society” named after Alexiy II for 2011. The ceremony will be held at the Council Hall of Moscow Cathedral of Jesus the Saviour.
It is not the first visit the Patriarch Theodore pays in Russia. Back in October 2007 he had an official visit to Moscow as the head of the Alexandria Church. In February 2009 he was the only one celebrant of other churches performing as a Patriarch who took part at the enthronement of Kirill, Moscow Patriarch.
Moscow Domodedovo Airport is offering its congratulations to the Patriarch Theodore upon receiving of the award and wishes further success in its activity for the unity of the Orthodox nations.
Alexandrian Orthodox Church (or Alexandrian Partiarchy) – autocephalous Orthodox Church. The legend has it the Church was founded by the Apostle Mark. Recently the Alexandrian Orthodox Church is considered to take active missionary. The Church is spread in Africa: Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon among 6 mln believers united as 5 Egyptian and 19 African dioceses. The service is performed in ancient Greek, Arabic and local languages. The local dioceses practice translations of the services in local languages. Starting October 2004 the celebrant of the Church is His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria.
Moscow Domodedovo Airport is the largest airport in passenger traffic in Russia and Europe according to the ACI classification. In 2011, the airport served 25,701,610 people. Moscow Domodedovo Airport has been chosen for flights to Moscow by members of the world's leading aviation alliances - Star Alliance, oneworld. Since 2010, Moscow Domodedovo Airport tops the list of the best airports in the Eastern Europe by quality of service, according to an annual survey by the independent research company Skytrax Research (UK).