His Grace Iov, Bishop of Kashira and Very Rev. Sergei Kipriyanovich, the Rector of the Cathedral in Edmonton were invited by Fr. Joseph Salame, the Rector of the Maronite Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Good Help and took part in the welcome meeting of His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Bishara Boutros Al-Rahi at the time of his first pastoral visit to Canada.
On Wednesday, May 9^th, Bishop Iov greeted the Maronite guest at the banquet at the Shaw Conference Centre. His Eminence Joseph G. Al-Zehlaoui, the Archbishop of the West America (The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch) came from Los Angeles and also attended the meeting together with his Edmonton clergy. In his speeches the Patriarch spoke about the issues related to preserving the Christian faith in the Middle East and about his own efforts to promote peaceful coexistence of all religious groups in the region and to facilitate mutual respect.

The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic Church. The Patriarch of this Church resides in Lebanon, where the Maronites are the largest Christian community. In Canada, there are about 80,000 Maronites, a half of them reside in the Province of Quebec. The Canadian Maronite Diocese is headquartered in Montreal, it has 14 parishes across Canada. Since November 11^th, 1996 up to now the Diocese is headed by His Eminence Bishop Joseph Khoury.

His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Bishara Boutros Al-Rahi, the 77^th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, was enthroned on March 25^th, 2011. Soon after that, on November 15^th, 2011 the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kirill held a meeting with the newly enthroned Maronite Patriarch during his fraternal visit to the Antiochian Orthodox Church.