Meeting held to discuss the situation in Ukraine

DECR Communication Service, 10.01.2023.

On January 10, a meeting was held at the Patriarchal Residence in the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow to discuss, among other things, the development of church-state relations in Ukraine. It was chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The participants in the conference expressed grave concern over the continued tough persecution of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

It was particularly pointed out that for the first time the state offered the schismatics an opportunity for holding ‘a divine service’ on the day of the Nativity of Christ at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra while His Beatitude Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kiev, had no opportunity to preside over the festive liturgy within the walls of this monastery.

Among the signs of extreme expression of the pressure applied on the faithful is the information about ‘the suspension of citizenship’ of a number of hierarchs of the Ukrainian Church, which, according to available reports, can threaten dozens more of them.

According to the Patriarchal Press Service, the meeting was attended by Metropolitan Dionisy of Voskresensk, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations; V. P. Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and Mass Media; Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, adviser to His Holiness the Patriarch, and A. V. Shchipkov, vice-chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relation and Mass Media.

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Meeting held to discuss the situation in Ukraine

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons