Sergii Bortnyk took part in the meeting of representatives of the clergy and believers of both Orthodox jurisdictions of Ukraine

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On February 16, an informal meeting of representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) took place in the Saint Sophia complex of Kyiv. Another name of this meeting was “Round table of the State Service of Ukraine on ethnopolitics and freedom of conscience” (SSEFC) and representatives of the clergy and laity of the UOC and OCU ‘Church, society, state: dialogue for the sake of unity and victory’”. Following a similar meeting in July 2022, this was the second meeting held between representatives of both jurisdictions with active support of SSEFC.

At the meeting there were three official speeches – of the current Chairman of the SSEFC, Viktor Yelensky, of the representative of the UOC, Archpriest Ihor Kovrovsky, and of the representative of the OCU, Archpriest Volodymyr Vakin. All speeches are available on the YouTube Viche-channel. After the speeches, there was a lively discussion and debate about ways of possible reconciliation and unification of Orthodox jurisdictions.

A few days after the meeting, the “Address of the Inter-Church Dialogue Participants to the Episcopate, Clergy and Believers” was published on the SSEFC website. At the request of the website www.dialogtut.org, Sergii Bortnyk spoke about his impressions of this meeting and the prospects for the unity of the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Links to all mentioned materials in Ukrainian are provided below.