P.Ts.U. PRIMATE DISCUSSES PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW'S AUGUST VISIT WITH REPRESENTATIVE OF ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
On 28 July 2021, in his residence, the Metropolitan House, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifany, met with Metropolitan of Chalcedon Emmanuel, who came to Kiev as the representative of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for celebration of the memorial day of the Holy Equal-to-Apostles Prince Vladimir and the 1033rd anniversary of the baptism of Rus-Ukraine.
The meeting was also attended by the deputy head of the Department of External Church Relations, Archbishop Evstraty, the official website of the PTsU reports.
Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Epifany thanked Vladyka Emmanuel for concelebrating the liturgy and asked that he relay sincere thanks to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew for the warm congratulations read after the divine service.
"We, the church and the Ukrainian people, are awaiting with joy the visit by His Holiness next month, which he mentioned in his letter also. This is also confirmed by sociological surveys," Metropolitan Epifany emphasized. "The patriarch noted correctly that it is the obligation of the mother to show love to all her children, regardless of how they themselves treat her. Both the Ukrainian church and the Russian church are daughters of the Constantinople Mother Church. And although the Moscow patriarchate publicly expresses its displeasure with the future visit, in reality we know from the data of sociological surveys that even among adherents of the Moscow patriarchate those who view the visit negatively are a significant minority," the PTsU primate said.
Metropolitan Emmanuel again relayed the words of the greeting and warm fraternal wishes from the ecumenical patriarch sent to Metropolitan Epifany and the whole Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the occasion of the holiday.
"His Holiness the patriarch will arrive in Ukraine in the spirit of love, pastoral concern, and peace at the invitation of the local church and the Ukrainian government, in order to celebrate in church and state events the outstanding occasion for the Ukrainian people—30 years of independence. We are working together with Your Beatitude and representatives of the Ukrainian government on preparation of the visit and we are confident that it will be successful," Metropolitan Emmanuel noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 31 July 2021)
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