Reconciliation in Europe Group to hold ecumenical conference in Belarus

From February 27 to March 2, 2019, a regular meeting of the members of the international working group “Reconciliation in Europe - the mission of Churches in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Germany” was held in Minsk, on the premises of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate "Koinonia". This is reported by the Department of Information of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Representatives of the UGCC, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church of Ukraine and the Roman Catholic Church took part in the meeting from Ukraine. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with the blessing of His Beatitude Svyatoslav, was represented by the Chairman of the Commission on Inter-Confessional and Interreligious Relations, Archpriest Ihor Shaban.

Plans for 2019 were discussed, special attention being drawn to the preparation of the forthcoming international conference in Belarus scheduled for May this year on “Churches and local communities in the face of social challenges.”

Taking into account the international level of the forthcoming conference, the Reconciliation in Europe Group visited the main representative offices of Germany and Poland, where they met with Ambassador of Germany to the Republic of Belarus Mr. Peter Dettmar and Ambassador of Poland to the Republic of Belarus Mr. Arthur Michalski. During these meetings, the forms of possible cooperation in the future were discussed.

The group members visited the Apostolic Visitator for the Greek Catholics of Belarus, the Head of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, the mitered Archimandrite Serhiy Hayek, and congratulated him on the 70th anniversary of his birthday and the 45th anniversary of the priests.

Reference: The International Reconciliation Group in Europe was founded in 1974 on the initiative of the Evangelical Church of Germany and the Polish Ecumenical Council in order to promote reconciliation between the Polish and German peoples, relations between which have been substantially impaired as a result of the Second World War. In 1995, new members joined the Reconciliation Group: representatives of Ukraine and Belarus. Thus, the project "Reconciliation in Europe - the mission of Churches in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Germany" emerged.

From Ukraine, the Reconciliation Group includes representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine and the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine.