On February 11, 2020, Dom Druzhby (“The House of Friendship”) of the Leningrad Oblast located in St. Petersburg hosted a meeting of The Bridge of Concord, an interreligious discussion club founded at the ELCIR Theological Institute in 2016. The topic of the roundtable discussion was “Peacemaking in Interreligious Interaction.” The meeting was attended by Bishop Ivan Laptev, members of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, Muslims, Buddhists, representatives of the Administration of the Leningrad Oblast Governor and ethnic diasporas.
The meeting opened with a congratulation of Bishop Laptev on his episcopal ordination. Greetings were extended by Dmitri Pulyayevski, deputy chairman, Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Oblast; Vladimir Zhuravlyov, deputy chairman, Civic Chamber of the Leningrad Oblast; Vyacheslav Sanin, advisor to Governor of the Leningrad Oblast.
Informational messages were given by Rt. Rev. Ivan Laptev, Bishop of The Church of Ingria; Alexander Posadski, professor, Smolny Institute; Rinat Magdiev, assistant professor, ITMO University, co-chairman of the Civil Peace International Public Movement; Alla Mitelman, director, Sha’arei Shalom Jewish Community of Progressive Judaism in St. Petersburg; Antoine Arakelian, vice-president, Congress of Diasporas in Russia. A discussion followed, ending in a summing-up of the meeting.
Information provided by Bishop Ivan Laptev