On September 17, 2022, Metropolitan Epifaniy met with a delegation of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) of the Roman Catholic Church at his residence – the Metropolitan House.
According to the OCU Press Office, Metropolitan Epifaniy received the President of the Conference, Archbishop Eric de Moulin-Beaufort, its general secretary Hugues de Woillemont, the administrator of the Diocese of Saint Vladimir the Great of Paris, Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, accompanied by the chairman of the Commission on Interfaith and Interreligious Relations of the UGCC, Fr Igor Chaban, and professor of the Department of pastoral theology of the FBF UCU, Fr Mychailo Dymyd.
The parties discussed the current interfaith and socio-political situation in Ukraine and the world, social service and chaplaincy issues, and the challenges and threats posed to the religious communities of our state by unprovoked large-scale Russian aggression.
"I am glad to welcome you to the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, our St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. In a special way, at this time of trials by the terrible war, we feel the prayerful support of our Christian Brothers. This is very important for us.
We are facing a test if we will survive as a separate people or we will not, and Russia will "de-ukrainize" us. We have chosen the vector of the European development of Ukraine. We want to be an integral part of European civilization. Therefore, the enemy, seeing that we would not move in this direction, decided to enslave us, and, more exactly, they decided to destroy us physically.
These days, we see over and over again the multiple manifestations of the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Some said that Bucha had been a special case. But the genocide is taking place systematically, and now we have seen confirmation again in the city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. It is also an effect of the preaching of the ideology of the Russian World, which had been instilled for decades in Ukraine," said the Primate of the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan Epifaniy has also reiterated that as a result of this full-scale Russian invasion, innocent civilians and children are being killed every day, not to mention the defenders of Ukraine, our newest heroes who give their lives for each of us.
"The future of the whole world now depends on our victory because the war in Ukraine has affected almost everyone on the planet. From day one, we organized ourselves and stood up for the defense of our motherland, and the whole world saw that we would fight to the end. And the victory will certainly be ours," Metropolitan Epifaniy summed up.
At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to continue the dialogue and deepen cooperation at various levels in order to achieve a just peace.