President Meets with Participants of Third Interfaith Forum in Kyiv

On April 24 the president met with the organizers and participants of the third Kyiv Interfaith Forum and welcomed the efforts of religious and secular communities aimed at promoting public tolerance and human values irrespective of faith and ethnicity, the presidential press-service reported.

“I highly appreciate your efforts aimed at promoting tolerance and human values regardless of faith and ethnicity. You help to decrease violence and intolerance in the world,” the head of state said at the meeting with representatives of the Interfaith Forum.

The president emphasized that in the recent conditions religion facilitated the consolidation of European peoples and many other peoples of the world.

In his turn, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem stressed that Kyiv had become a place for constructive dialogue of “all religions.” “The Ukrainian people are our second Jerusalem,” he noted.

The meeting was also attended by Administrator of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthoniy of Boryspil, Deputy of the National Assembly of Tunisia, Vice President of the Committee for Human Rights and International Relations Fatma Gharbi, Chairman of the World Sikh Council Satpal Singh, General Secretary of European Council of Religious Leaders Stein Villumstad, Chief Rabbi of Turkey Ishak Haleva, Director on interchurch and international relations of American Orthodox Church Leonid Kishkovsky, people’s deputy of Ukraine, director of the Institute of Human Rights and Prevention of Extremism and Xenophobia Oleksandr Feldman.