Conference on the twentieth anniversary of the Kharkov Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church takes place in Kiev
28 May 2012 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Episcopal Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Council that was held in Kharkov elected His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir the UOC Primate. By the decision of the UOC Holy Synod, an international conference “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Turn of the Millennium” sponsored by the Kievan Theological Academy was held at the Ukrainian House in Kiev under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Vladimir.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, read out a message of greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to the participants and guests of the Conference. Greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and from the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich were also read out.
Archbishop Antoniy of Borispol, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, read out a report of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir, entitled “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Turn of the Millennium. Achievements and Challenged.”
Reports were presented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk; Bishop Nahum of Stobia, general secretary of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church; Mr. Yuri Bogutsky, first deputy minister of culture of Ukraine, and other persons.
Attending the Conference were bishops and clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, politicians and public figures of Ukraine.