SYDNEY: December 27, 2013
Members of the Synodal Committee on Cooperation with the Cossacks Visit Australia as Part of a Rossotrudnichestvo Project

From December 9-14, 2013, members of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Synodal Committee on Cooperation with the Cossacks, Priest Timofey Chaikin, its Secretary, and Mr IA Kotin, Director of the Educational System Department, visited Australia as part of a delegation of Russia’s Federal agency Rossotrudnechstvo .

The visit was organized as part of a project called “Organization and Operation in Supporting Russian Language and Culture Among Russian-Speaking Populations of Cossack Stanitzas of Australia.” The project is part of a Federal program called “Russian Language,” which is scheduled to operate from 2011-2015.

Many descendants of Cossacks live in Australia who fled Russia in the early 20 th century. They went on to establish 34 Russian schools where children who had never visited Russia, born in various countries, but of Russian descent, learn Russian, Russian literature, the Law of God, and the geography and history of Russia.

The delegates met with various Cossack representatives and clergymen, and organized seminars for Russian school staffs.

On December 12, the delegation was in SS Peter and Paul Cathedral in Sydney, and was later received by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, as reported by the Synodal Committee Press Service.

Patriarchia.ru