Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has dismissed Metropolitan Hilarion from his position of chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. Since 2009, Metropolitan Hilarion, as the Russian Orthodox “foreign minister,” has been the most prominent and visible Russian Orthodox official in relations with the Catholic Church.

The Orthodox Times reported that Hilarion was dismissed because he took a more irenic position on the war in Ukraine than did Kirill.

Metropolitan Hilarion’s replacement is the Paris-based Metropolitan Anthony, 37, of Chersonesus and Western Europe. Metropolitan Hilarion, the author of several theological works that have been translated into English, will now lead the Russian Orthodox faithful in Hungary.