Delegation from Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine - Pt. 1

(UOC-MP) - October, 5 His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine received the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, consisting of Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate archimandrite Elpidophoros Lambriniadis and priest Basil Papathanasiou, at his residence at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (the Kyiv Caves Monastery).

On behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church taking part in the meeting were Secretary for the Primate of the UOC Bishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Chair of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC archimandrite Kirill Hovorun. Present at the meeting also were Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine Yuriy Bohutskyi and people's deputy of Ukraine Petro Yushchenko.

In the course of meeting the representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople reported the greetings of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the UOC Primate. They also made a positive evaluation of the fact of meeting of the working groups of the UOC and the UOC-KP held shortly before. They also underscored that the person of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr consolidates all the orthodox believers of Ukraine irrespective of their jurisdiction, and thanked the Primate of the UOC for the expended efforts of reunification of the orthodox people of Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarchate delegation members also stated that the purpose of their stay in Ukraine was to facilitate overcoming of the splits. However, they pointed out that the Ecumenical Patriarchate was not going to resolve this problem unilaterally, but first of all in cooperation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church conferred on the guests and Petro Yushchenko the jubilee orders of "450 Years of Translation of Theotokos Pochayiv Icon to Volyn".

Throughout the time of the visit, the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Ukraine was accompanied by the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, archimandrite Kirill Hovorun, who also met and saw off the guests at the airport of Kyiv.