Head of the UGCC held a working meeting with the developers of the humanitarian policy of Ukraine

On October 18, the Head of the UGCC, Patriarch Sviatoslav, had a meeting and discussion with members of the office for the development of the humanitarian policy with the participation of Volodymyr Borodyansky, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of Ukraine. This is reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.

The Head of the UGCC spoke about the principles that guide the representatives of the religious part of civil society, brought together the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations as a whole, and the UGCC in particular, in their relations with the state. These principles are respect for and concern for freedom of religion and public morality; dignity of the human person; solidarity and subsidiarity. “The state and the Church and other religious communities are united by the fact that we are all people and, as communities, we act for people, for our common good,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav summed up his opening speech.

A significant part of the discussion was devoted to the issues of freedom - personal and spiritual one – and love of freedom, as a special feature of the identity of the Ukrainian as a person and Ukrainians as a political nation. The discussion participants agreed that the concept of freedom includes the concept of responsibility. This concerns first of all responsibility before God, past generations (for our identity is created by our memory and consciousness of our past) and future generations (because the cultivation of the new is a concern for our future, and “cultivation” and “culture” are the same words). This sense of responsibility motivates us all, representatives of the religious environment, government officials and figures, and representatives of civil society to outstanding activity, which cannot be a chaotic movement, but purposeful to increase the common good activities on the principles of the correct scale of values.

The participants of the discussion comprehensively discussed issues related to the formation, resilience and development of the state organism. It was noted that the state is always based on the concept of the common good, for which the people and united in the state body. At the same time, it should be remembered that dialogue is the main tool for creating a community. All institutionality is derivative, and the community is fundamental. Nor should we forget that the family is an institution created by God himself before all other institutions, and the individual is a higher value than the state.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that for Ukraine at the current stage of its development, the religious world is the largest manifestation of the common good. He also answered numerous questions from the representatives of the Office and shared his views on the content of our national idea, the essence of which is the essence of our identity.

At the end of the meeting, the head of the UGCC thanked its organizers and participants for their openness to dialogue to find the truth and wished them successful work to increase the common good of the Ukrainian people.