On July 15, 2021, the visit of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, to the United States ended, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who took part in the International Summit on Religious Freedom in Washington.
At the New York airport, Metropolitan Hilarion was escorted by the Consul General of Russia to the United States, S. K. Ovsyannikov, and the cleric of the St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral, Hegumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov).
On July 11, Metropolitan Hilarion concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York, after which the DECR chairman held talks with the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America
On July 12, the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Metropolitan Hilarion celebrated the festive Liturgy together with the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, at the Synodal Residence of the Russian Church Abroad in New York.
On the same day, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Rector of the All-Church Postgraduate and Doctoral School named after Saints Cyril and Methodius, met with Archpriest Chad Hatfield, President of St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York.
On July 14, the DECR Chairman made a report at the International Summit on Religious Freedom in Washington. On the sidelines of the summit, he held meetings with former Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, President of the Open Doors human rights organization David Curry, Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association V. G. Gumm, US Congressman Jim Slattery, member of the German Bundestag Waldemar Gerdt, organizer of the National Prayer Breakfast in the USA Doug Burley, president of the Trans World Radio media company Loren Libby, leader of the Pulse Christian organization Nick Hall. On the same day, the Metropolitan visited the St. John the Baptist Cathedral of the Russian Church Abroad in Washington, where he was received by its rector, Archpriest Viktor Potapov, and also visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation, where he met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the United States of America A. I. Antonov.
On July 15, Metropolitan Hilarion held meetings with the founder of the Catholic foundation "Urbi et orbi", the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Inside the Vatican" Robert Moynihan and the hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, the former Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen).
On his trip to the United States, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk was accompanied by DECR employee Philip Champion and Subdeacon Vyacheslav Li.