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More than one hundred senior officials of the Orthodox Church, European intellectuals and friends of Athos from different countries around the world attended the conference. Among the participants were Vladimir Yakunin, President of the Russian Railways and Founder of the ”World Public Forum - Dialogue of Civilizations”, Jan Figel, Transport minister and leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Slovakia, and the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, Basil Koutsou-Ephraim. All participants stressed the role of Mount Athos as a spiritual and historical center of Orthodox Christianity, while underlining at the same time the importance of Orthodox spirituality in the contemporary society.
The important outcome of the conference was the agreement on a European initiative to strengthen the cooperation between the Orthodox Church, organizations and scientists aiming to support the 20 monasteries on Mount Athos. Also, the decision to conduct such annual conferences as part of this Initiative and to promote specific programs for research and study of the treasures of the libraries of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
As part of their participation in the conference in Salzburg, the Abbot of the Monastery of Vatopedi and monks of other monasteries of Mount Athos, did yesterday’s mass all together in the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the historic quarter of the Greeks in Vienna.
