OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2012. A meeting between Chairman of State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’ Vladimir Dmitriev with His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill was held in the Patriarch’s Official Residence at the St. Danilov Monastery on March 13.

In the course of their meeting the two men discussed cooperation between Vnesheconombank and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since 2011, a program on constructing the St. George the Victor Monastery in Getschendorf (Germany) and creating on its basis an Orthodox Culture Center has been underway. His Holiness Patriarch stressed the importance of the orthodox monastery’s construction outside Berlin where a great number of our compatriots reside now.

Under the Russian Orthodox Church Program “Providing Support for Constructing Temples in Moscow” the Bank is considering the project to construct an orthodox temple for 250-300 worshippers in order to include it into the state corporation’s charitable and sponsor activities program for 2013.

Vnesheconombank takes an active part in the construction of the Patriarchal Center for the Spiritual Development of Children and Youth at the Danilov Monastery. In the past five years, the Bank has been transferring monetary funds for repairing the monastery’s utility lines, constructing and equipping the Spiritual Center as well as implementing its youth programs. At present, the construction work is nearing completion and by the end of the year the first stage of the Center’s premises is to be commissioned.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill hailed Vnesheconombank’s activities and stressed the importance the Russian Church attaches to its work with youth in the Moscow episcopate, across Russia and abroad. He said that it was important to build the Patriarchal Center to implement various youth spiritual education programs and thanked Vnesheconombank’s management for financial assistance in constructing this very important church facility in the Russian capital.