On 11 December 2025, a meeting and discussion organized by the public association “Sofia Brotherhood” and supported by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Switzerland) took place in Kyiv. The theme of the meeting, “Dialogue between the Church, the State and Society: Paths to Understanding”, was reflected in the composition of the discussion panels, which included representatives of the President’s Office and the State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS). At the invitation of the organisers, Sergii Bortnyk, Head of the Academic Initiative Foundation, also took part in the meeting.
In their speeches, representatives of the DESS emphasised the theme of dialogue. In particular, the Head of the DESS Viktor Yelensky regretfully confirmed that dialogue between his Service and the leadership and episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “never took place”. At the same time, he emphasised the controversial position that non-recognition of the status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is tantamount to non-recognition of Ukrainian statehood. In turn, DESS representative Vyacheslav Horshkov spoke about the need for public theology and the need to encourage churches to engage in internal dialogue, i.e. between the episcopate and other groups within churches.
Ilona Sokolovska, editor-in-chief of the YouTube channel Viche, gave a striking speech in which she emphasized the “gulf of mutual distrust”, especially between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and state authorities. She stressed that Ukraine lacks a “platform of trust” due to the radicalization of many media outlets. In recent months, the Viche channel has become a meeting place and a forum for active communication between representatives of extremely diverse groups in the religious community in Ukraine and beyond.
In his extended remark, Sergii Bortnyk emphasized that state involvement in resolving significant church issues is part of the ethos of Eastern Christianity. In particular, this was already the case at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and during the debates in 2018-2019 on granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It is likely that a new, positive strategy from the relevant state authorities will be needed to resolve the current situation surrounding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which many experts consider to be at an impasse.
Vita Tytarenko, a representative of the President’s Office, emphasised the need for such a position, where the church and the state are allies rather than rivals. She stressed that in the religious sphere, it is necessary to maintain a balance between national security and religious freedom. Accordingly, with regard to the status of the UOC, the goal should be not so much to ban it as to distance it from dangerous and undesirable ties.
Overall, the meeting provided an opportunity for fairly informal communication, involving a large number of participants, including many members of the “Sofia Brotherhood”. A number of them spoke about the idea of creating an exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine in order to resolve the canonical crisis, which has intensified due to the on-going war.
