Ministry of Culture gathers members of OCU and priests from UOC at Sophia’s
According to the Minister of Culture, the “clergy” of the OCU and the priests of the UOC met to “overcome divisions.”
Minister of Culture of Ukraine Alexander Tkachenko gathered clerics of the OCU and priests of the UOC in the St. Sophia Cathderal. He announced this on his Facebook page.
“Overcoming division, serving the people of Ukraine and building our common home are our shared goals. I believe that this meeting is the beginning of a new, wise, strong path for our Churches for the sake of a free and peaceful future for Ukraine,” Tkachenko is convinced.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that none of the official representatives were present at the meeting, the Politika Strana Telegram channel reports.
“No one from the Church delegated the priests who took part in this meeting to represent the point of view of the clergy and millions of laity of the UOC. This event was organized by representatives of the Ministry of Culture, therefore, only this organization is responsible for all organizational issues, including the list of participants. I learned from the media that the participants of this meeting talked about what is common and what is the difference between the UOC and the OCU. I don’t know what they came to,” Metropolitan Clement, Chairman of the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, according to Strana.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the meeting in the St. Sophia Cathedral can be viewed as the implementation of the Recommendations of the Rada Committee on uniting everyone into one church for the sake of "increasing the authority of Ukraine in the international arena."
