Metropolitan Anthony meets with Patriarch John X of Antioch

Metropolitan Anthony and Patriarch John X of Antioch. Photo: facebook.com/MitropolitAntoniy

On June 16, 2021, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, met with His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East, reports the official website of the DECR of the UOC.

During the meeting, which took place at the Patriarchal Residence in Damascus, Syria, Metropolitan Anthony thanked Patriarch John X for his blessing to visit the Church of Great Antioch, where the disciples of Christ were first called Christians (Acts 11:26), and also conveyed greetings from His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and of All Ukraine.

The parties discussed the situation in world and Ukrainian Orthodoxy and also discussed ways of developing cooperation between the Ukrainian and Antiochian Orthodox Churches.

Patriarch John X asked Vladyka Anthony to convey warm words of gratitude to the fullness of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the collected aid, which was carried out by the eparchies of the UOC in accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of August 17, 2020, to restore the churches of the Beirut Metropolitanate, which suffered from the explosion in the port of the capital of Lebanon on August 4, 2020.

According to the Patriarch, the Church of Antioch was touched by the empathy and effective help that they felt from the Orthodox Ukrainian people, which became an expression of brotherly love and a manifestation of the unity of brothers in Christ.

Metropolitan Anthony was accompanied by Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC. The meeting was also attended by the bishops of the Church of Antioch: Bishop Moses of Darai, Bishop John of Sergiupol (Al Rusafa), Bishop Ephraim of Seleucia, as well as members of the Patriarchate.

As earlier reported, the hierarch of the UOC discussed the situation in Ukraine with the bishops of the Church of Antioch.

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