On 1-3 September 2002 the annual inter-faith meeting took place in Palermo (Italy) hosted by St. Egidio Community, a Catholic public peacemaking organization.

Participants in the meeting on Religions and Cultures in the Context of Conflict and Dialogue were Christian, Islamic, Judaic and other religious leaders including hierarchs from the Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Her Majesty Queen Paola of Belgium was also among the participants. The Moscow Patriarchate was represented by Metropolitan Makary of Mogilev-Podolsky, Bishop Hilarion of Podolsk, Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, DECR vice-chairman Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, and a DECR MP staff member Igor Vyzhanov.

During the round-table discussions Bishop Hilarion spoke on Catholic-Orthodox relations, and Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin made a presentation on Europe: Freedom of Development or New Uniformity?

On September 2 Bishop Hilarion of Podolsk was invited to lunch with the Queen Paola of Belgium, during which he informed the Queen about the creation of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions in Brussels. Her Majesty expressed her wish to visit the Representation.

On September 3 the Russian Orthodox delegation attended the ceremony of the Proclamation of Appeal for Peace issued by participants in the meeting. The document says in particular: ‘The entire world needs hope. The hope for our ability to coexist in harmony, the hope that we will not be guided by our memory of injustices we experienced, the hope for such a world order which will allow all people to live in a dignified manner. The globalization should not be reduced to the free movement of goods because it should be also a globalization of solidarity, dialogue, justice and security for everyone.’