The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us:

On 22 June 2010, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church received, at the Patriarchal Residence, His Excellence Mr. David Oren, Ambassador of Israel in Bucharest, at the end of his diplomatic mission in Romania.

His Excellency Mr. David Oren thanked for reception and underlined the fact that the three years of diplomatic activity in Romania represent for him a period of many achievements, both professional and personal. In this context, Mr. Ambassador David Oren mentioned the fact that during his stay in Romania he visited many Orthodox cathedrals, churches and monasteries in all parts of the country and met Romanian hierarchs, priests and monks who received him with much hospitality, especially those who visited the Holy Land.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel congratulated the Ambassador of Israel at the end of his diplomatic mission in Romania and appreciated the good relations of the Romanian Patriarchate with the present leadership of the Jewish community in our country. The Patriarch of Romania also underlined the fact that during the last few years the pilgrimages the Romanian Patriarchate organized to Israel and to some other countries of the Middle East have been intensified a lot, so that many Romanian Orthodox pilgrims had the opportunity to pray in the Holy Land and to better know the Bible tradition and the common spiritual values. In this context, His Beatitude expressed the hope that the authorities of the State of Israel would intensify their efforts in order to allow the tourists’ access in the Jordan Valley, so that the Romanian pilgrims may have the possibility to visit the Romanian skete of Saint John the Baptist in Jordan, set up by the decision of Patriarch Miron in 1927, built from 1935 – 1936, close to the place where Jesus Christ, our Lord, was Baptized in the River Jordan. Saint John Jacob the Hosevite from Neamt was abbot of this skete from 1947 – 1952.

During the meeting, the need to promote the values of the Jewish – Christian tradition was emphasized as spiritual basis of the European culture and civilization through the religious education in the public schools, through pilgrimages and through the periodic organization of certain symposiums on this theme, in order to promote more intensively the common religious values in the contemporary society faced with secularity.

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