Since 2014 thanks to a number of personal contacts with European partners, Sergii Bortnyk has been increasingly invited to international forums to highlight his vision of the religious problems of Ukraine and world Orthodoxy, as well as to present the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on different issues.
Currently, Sergii Bortnyk is author of a monograph in German, translator of two published books from English, author of 25 published articles, including 8 in German, reviewer of 10 books, of which seven are in English and two in German.
In the period from 2014 to 2019, Sergii Bortnyk took part at more than 40 conferences and other events abroad (Austria, Belarus, Vatican, Holland, Greece, Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Switzerland), as well as at several dozens of international events in Ukraine.
In addition to such personal participation, an important activity of the Foundation is to promote training and internships of the teaching stuff and students from Ukraine in theological institutions of other (mostly Western European) countries. Among the main partners are the following:
- Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (Bossey, Switzerland),
- German language course organized by the Evangelical Church in Germany in Sibiu/Hermannstadt, Romania (successful participants can study at the theological faculties of German universities ‒ in particular in Bonn, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Münster).
- German language course for continuing education at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Bavaria,
- German language course, supported by the German Episcopal Conference in Paderborn, Germany,
- French language course at the Center of St. Genevieve by Paris with the possibility of further studies at the universities of Paris,
- University of Fribourg, Switzerland,
- St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York, USA,
- English language courses at the “Divine Word School” in Ireland,
- Summer Theological Institutes near Moscow.
Another important kind of activity of our Foundation is publishing. The first example of this was in 2017 – publication of the book of Sergii Bortnyk “Personality and Communion. The theology of Metropolitan John Zizioulas in systematic consideration” (Russian translation of his German dissertation). By the end of 2020 or partly at the beginning of 2021, through the support of our Foundation and our international partners, it is planned to publish four other books:
- Proceedings of the conference “Reconciliation Strategies. The Role of the Churches in Ukraine” (as “Appendix” it is planned to publish six additional articles and reports of Sergii Bortnyk on the topical issues),
- Almanac of Early Latin Patristics (editor-in-chief Oleksandr Levko),
- Textbook “History and Theology of the Roman Catholic Church” (author Volodymyr Bureha),
- Textbook “Modern Orthodox Theological Thought” (author Sergii Bortnyk).
The last aspect that can be mentioned is organizational activities. In particular, in November 2017 our Foundation organized a trip for representatives of the Kyiv Theological Academy of the UOC through German universities (there were meetings with 11 professors from the universities of Paderborn, Munster, Heidelberg and Munich; they represented three denominations: Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran). The organization of the international conference “Strategies of Reconciliation. The Role of the Churches in Ukraine” belongs to this kind of activity as well. It took place in October 2018 in Kyiv and was attended by more than 120 participants representing 50 Ukrainian and foreign institutions.