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On December 31, 2018, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine received a letter from His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa (Hrycuniak) of Warsaw and All Poland, in which the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church notified the Ukrainian Church leader that He had written a response  to the letter that was written to Him by Patriarch  Bartholomew of Constantinople ; a copy of the said response was also attached. The letter was His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa’s reply to a lett…

Am Vereinigungskonzil zur Gründung einer eigenständigen orthodoxen Kirche in der Ukraine ist am 15. Dezember Metropolit Epifanij (Dumenko) zum Oberhaupt der neuen Kirche gewählt worden. Der bisherige Metropolit von Perejaslav von dem bis vor kurzem als schismatisch angesehenen „Kiewer Patriarchat“ trägt nun den Titel „Metropolit von Kiew und der ganzen Ukraine“. Am 6. Januar 2019 soll er in Istanbul den Tomos zur Verleihung der Autokephalie an die neue Kirche vom Ökumenischen Patriarchen Bartho…

On December 20, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted bill number 5309, voted for by 240 MPs. MPs from the Opposition Bloc voted against it. Speaker of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy emphasizes that the bill was passed at the personal request of Patriarch Emeritus Filaret. The bill sponsored by MP Alexander Bryhintsev and a number of other MPs suggests amending the standard law entitled On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations so that a religious organization whose ce…

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations strongly opposes the use of law enforcement agencies by Ukrainian officials to propagate any ideologies (in particular, the gender ideology), for the purposes of censorship and restrictions of freedom of conscience, opinion, and expression. This is stated in the appeal of the AUCCRO addressed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine on December 11, the Institute of Religious Freedom reports. The reason for this appeal was the aggressive…

On December 12, 2018, the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church appealed to clergy, monastics and lay people with the message “God's Word and Catechism.” The message says that the whole Church is responsible for Christian upbringing of their faithful, but the faithful can also fulfill this mission by sharing faith in the resurrected Christ. Therefore, as the message says, the family is a home church, and the parents are the first educators of the faith. “Dear parents! You are…

Das Vereinigungskonzil zur Gründung einer autokephalen Ukrainischen Orthodoxen Kirche soll am 15. Dezember stattfinden. Das verkündete zumindest der ukrainische Präsident Petro Poroschenko, nachdem die Hl. Synode des Ökumenischen Patriarchats an ihrer letzten Sitzung kein Datum genannt hatte. In der Einladung zum Konzil, die Patriarch Bartholomaios an die ukrainischen Hierarchen gesandt hat, wird mitgeteilt, dass Metropolit Emmanuel (Adamakis) von Frankreich den Vorsitz der Versammlung haben wi…

In Rivne in der Westukraine sind mehrere Priester der Ukrainischen Orthodoxen Kirche–Moskauer Patriarchat (UOK–MP) vom Sicherheitsdienst der Ukraine (SBU) verhört worden. Ihnen werden Staatsverrat und die Verletzung der Rechte von Bürgern aufgrund ihrer Rasse, Nationalität oder Religion vorgeworfen. Anscheinend geht es um die Verbreitung von russischer Propagandaliteratur durch Geistliche des Moskauer Patriarchats. Der SBU machte mit Verweis auf die laufende Untersuchung keine näheren Angaben z…

His Eminence Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail has appealed to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to assist in ensuring the release and sending home of the Ukrainian sailors who were detained by the Russian border service in the Kerch Strait incident on November 25. “Only the Orthodox Church can become the sole link above the confrontation whose authoritative voice can be heard on both sides of the conflict,” His Eminence writes in his open letter that was publishe…

During the 51st meeting of the Conference of the Roman Catholic Bishops in Ukraine, which was taking place in Bryukhovychi, Lviv region, from November 30 to December 1, a new chairman of the Conference was elected. This is reported by the Catholic Media Center. For the next five years, Bishop Bronislav Bernatsky, the Ordinary of the Odesa-Simferopol Diocese became chairman of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops in Ukraine. Metropolitan of Lviv Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki was elected th…