Archbishop of UOC-KP briefed the Council of Europe on the situation in UOC-KP communities in occupied Crimea and Donbas

On February 2017, with the blessing of Patriarch Filaret, Archbishop Yevstratii of Chernihiv, Kyiv Patriarchate representative to the European institutions, visited Strasbourg (France), where he held meetings in the Council of Europe.

On February 7, he met with the pastor of the local community of the UGCC, Father John Dufanets.

The hierarch also visited the Mission of Ukraine to the Council of Europe and met with its Permanent Representative Dmiytro Kuleba.

That day the archbishop also attended a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Education, Culture, Sport, Youth and Environment (GR-C), which considered in particular the issue of a regular meeting of 2017 on inter-religious dimension of intercultural dialogue and starting a platform for dialogue of the European religious leaders with the Council’s institutions.

On February 8, Archbishop Yevstratii met with experts of the Office of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. While talking, he described the religious situation of the UOC-KP communities in the occupied Crimea and the Donbas region occupied by Russian terrorists. Separately, the hierarch spoke about the oppression of communities in the UOC-KP church of Noginsk, Moscow Region (Russia), where the authorities requested to demolish the only church of ​​the Kyiv Patriarchate in the area. He also spoke about the state of relations between the Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchates in Ukraine, stressing that the UOC-KP is open to dialogue and ready to engage intermediaries, including international institutions such as the Council of Europe.

This day the Archbishop also met with experts of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for Ukraine, told them about interfaith dialogue, including the productive activity of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.

On February 9, at a meeting with Matthew  Johnson, Director of  Democratic  Citizenship

and Participation in Directorate General of Democracy the hierarch spoke about interfaith relations and cooperation in Ukraine, paying attention to the religious education and study in general education schools of spiritual and moral subjects.

On the same day, Archbishop Yevstratii left for his homeland. This was reported by the website of Chernihiv Diocese of the UOC-KP.