UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA

CONSISTORY OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

PRESS RELEASE

Hierarchs of the UOC of the USA Meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch

On Thursday, October 30, 2015 His Eminence Metropolitan Antony, the Prime Hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA and His Grace Bishop Daniel, President of the Consistory of the UOC of the USA met with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey).

The meeting was held prior to the beginning of the 11^th Regular Sobor of the Ukrainian Orthodox communities across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In their formal meeting, the Ecumenical Patriarch conveyed his personal greetings to the clergy and delegates of the upcoming Sobor, ensuring them of his prayers and wholehearted and fervent wishes for a peaceful and fruitful assembly. The Patriarch further stated: “…Meeting together with faithful from all over the world – including the United States, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, - is a unique opportunity to share with one another news about developments on the parish, regional and global levels, especially at a time when our world is facing numerous tests to the Church’s unity and peace.”

Moreover, the hierarchs of the UOC of the USA discussed with His All Holiness the present struggle of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, as well as fervent prayers of the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Diaspora, for a peaceful and swift resolution of the ecclesiastical division that exists in the ancestral homeland of Ukraine.

Through such resolution, and fervent prayers of the Church, a true unity, spiritual, economic and political progress may bear fruit in the struggle of Ukrainian nation for a true peace and prosperity – the prayerful dream and reality of so many religious luminaries of Kyiv Rus and political leaders of the past and present day.

In conclusion of the meeting, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I offered greetings to His Eminence Metropolitan Antony on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of archpastoral service and presented him with a patriarchal panagia.

Following the meeting at the Patriarchal office, the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA departed for Munich, Germany where the formal sessions of the 11^th Regular Sobor of the Ukrainian Orthodox parish families in Diaspora take place at Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox parish during October 30 - November 1, 2015.