BERLIN: July 11, 2011 
Priest Andre Sikojev Assumes the Role as Representative of the Russian Church Abroad at the Federal Government and Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany 

The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, at a meeting of May 16, 2011, in New York, appointed Priest Andre Sikojev, a clergyman of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany, as its official representative at the German Government, Deutsche Bundesregierung, and its Parliament, Deutscher Bundestag, in Berlin.  

Fr Andre received the Synod’s blessing to protect the interests of the Russian Church Abroad in general and the German Diocese in particular. 

The Synod ukase reads in part: “Thanks to this new post, it will be possible to have a regular representation, based on mutual trust and cooperation, on behalf of our Church, clergymen, Diocesan Administration, parishes and the believers themselves before officials of the Federal Government, ministries as well as deputies of all parties of the Bundestag of Germany. Our intention is that this new representative role will reflect the growing spiritual and social role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany. We express confidence that the representative of our Church will actively and responsibly cooperate with all the offices and institutions of the Parliament of the FRG and the Federal Government.”  

Sincere 2005, Fr Andre has served as a priest and representative of His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, serving as Rector of the Church of the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God, the oldest Orthodox community in Berlin (www.pokrov.de). As a clergymen of the Russian Church Abroad since 1991, Fr Andre served for 14 years a deacon at Munich’s Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Fr Andre studied Slavistics and Orthodox Theology in Berlin and Munich, taking active participation in discussions held between the two Russian Orthodox dioceses in Germany, those of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad in 1993-1997, was a member of the IV All-Diaspora Council in San Francisco in May, 2006, and served as a delegate at the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion in Moscow in May 2007.

Fr Andre has now assumed the role of official Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia at the Federal Government and Parliament of the FRG.