On 10 August 2023, the representative of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who arrived in Ukraine at the invitation of Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met with the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine at his residence in the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery.
Metropolitan Emmanuel conveyed warm greetings on behalf of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Metropolitan Epiphaniy and the whole Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“With the blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, I arrived in Kyiv to show the support of the Mother Church to the heroic people of Ukraine, who oppose the unjust and cruel Russian aggression.
During the visit of President of Ukraine Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Ecumenical Patriarchate a month ago, we discussed the humanitarian dimension of the plan proposed by Ukraine in order to restore peace.
We also discussed other humanitarian initiatives. We agreed that we would continue to work in this direction. Therefore, at the invitation of the President of Ukraine, I also arrived to fulfill this important mission,” said Metropolitan Emmanuel.
During the meeting, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine had a warm conversation on the phone.
On the same day, Metropolitan Epiphaniy and Metropolitan Emmanuel visited the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery, where they met governor Archimandrite Abraham. He spoke about the Cathedral and the current state of the monastery, which will gradually be freed from the Russian yoke.
