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UOC-MP Head Blessed and Opened Second International Holy Intercession Readings

27.10.2009, [10:05] // UOC-MP //

KYIV – On October 22, 2009, on the premises of the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv of the Taras Shevchenko National University, with the blessing of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Metropolitan Volodymyr, began the Second International Holy Intercession Educational Readings "Church in the World: Ministry of Love."

At the entrance to the Institute the primate of the UOC-MP was met by the institute’s administration led by Rector Leonid Hubernsky and the head of the Missionary Department to the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP Archbishop Filip of Poltava and Myrhorod, who is one of the organizers of the event.

In his greeting address, Archbishop Philip announced the opening of the Second International Holy Intercession Readings and described its main tasks.

"We view the Holy Intercession Readings as cooperation between the church and various social, academic, governmental, and state structures. In other words, the church has to occupy an appropriate place in the society which it had occupied before, and holding such readings we hope that they will not just simply enrich one another – the church and the state – but that they will help restore spiritual heritage, that high spiritual foundation upon which the Ukrainian nation and state had been formed,” noted the chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department.

Then, according to the procedure the floor was given to Metropolitan Volodymyr who blessed the honorable assembly and greeted those present:

"The church has never opposed knowledge. Knowledge, if under the auspices of the Orthodox faith, works beneficially and heartily for the common cause of ‘the humanization of man.’ The ministry of love, which became the central theme of the Second Holy Intercession Readings, is of great significance since it embraces everyone and everything. Let this love unite all of us, brothers and sisters, with people of various specialties and of different character, knowledge, and faith," said the primate.

The next person addressing the assembly was the rector of the Taras Shevchenko National University Leonid Hubernsky who underscored the importance of the cooperation between the church and the institution he heads, and greeted the conference participants.

"I think our university is lucky that we have the honor to hold on our premises for the second time such reputable readings. It enables us to involve our teachers and what's more important, the younger generation, our students. It is symbolic that it is in our walls that these readings are held and it is good that finally we return to God and the spiritual sources of our people and history. This is what is highly important for us and the people of different generations," he expressed.

In the first part of the conference the greeting addresses of the primate of the Orthodox Church of Poland, Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw, and Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan Filaret of Misnk and Slutsk were read out, as well as the greetings by Petro Tolochko, an academic of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the rector of the Kyiv Theological Schools, Archbishop Anthony of Boryspil, Ivan Bekh, the director of the Institute for Pedagogical Matters, and the chair of the Synodal Department "Church and Culture" hegumeness Seraphima Shevchyk.

By the end of the first part of the event the archpastor presented to Archbishop Filip of Poltava and Myrhorod a copy of the facsimile edition of the Peresopnytsia Gospels for his considerable contribution to the construction of Holy Resurrection Cathedral of the UOC-MP and conferred the jubilee Orders of the 450th Anniversary of Bringing the Pochayiv Theotokos Icon to Volyn on the workers of science and culture. In particular, the awards were bestowed on Leonid Hubernskyi and Ivan Bekh.

The Second International Holy Intercession Readings "Church in the World: Ministry of Love" ended on October 24.

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