AUCCRO met with President of Israel and government officials
During the high meetings in Jerusalem, the delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations stressed the need to preserve the visa-free regime between Ukraine and Israel.
A remarkable event on the first day of the visit of the Ukrainian delegation to the Holy Land was the meeting of the AUCCRO members with the President of the State of Israel Reuven Rivlin, the Institute of Religious Freedom reports.
Members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations discussed with representatives of the Israeli Government in more detail the further development of the pilgrimage to both countries and the Ukrainian-Israeli relations.
Issues of international cooperation and pilgrimage, taking into account the benefits of the existing visa-free regime, as well as counteraction of the anti-Semitic manifestations and environmental challenges, became the subject of discussion with Zeev Yelkin, Minister for Jerusalem and National Heritage Affairs, Minister of the Environment of the State of Israel.
At a meeting between Ukrainian religious leaders and high-ranking officials of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs the parties exchanged statements on Israel's solidarity with Ukraine and on the support of the State of Israel at the international level. In addition, participants of the meeting separately discussed issues of religious freedom for believers of different denominations and representatives of different cultures.
A practical meeting was held between the AUCCRO delegation with Governor Gush-Ezii Shlomo Neeman and a military rabbi who shared the Israeli experience in organizing a military chaplaincy in the Israeli Defense Forces and explained the peculiarities of serving civil servants by believers.
The delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is represented by the heads of such confessions:
Association of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine; Orthodox Church of Ukraine; Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate); Roman Catholic Church; All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Baptists; Ukrainian Church of the Christians of the Evangelical Faith; Seventh-Day Adventist Churches; Ukrainian Free Church of the Christians of the Gospel Faith; Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church; German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine.
The delegation of the AUCCRO includes the leaders of the Ukrainian Bible Society, the Institute of Religious Freedom and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
As reported, the official visit of the delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations to Israel is held at the initiative of Yakov Dov Bleich, Chair of the AUCCRO, the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine.
The visit program also foresees the meeting of Ukrainian religious leaders with the Speaker of the Knesset (Parliament) and the on-going meeting in Jerusalem.
