On February 5, 2025, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, as part of his visit to the USA, where His Beatitude arrived to participate in the Ukrainian Week in Washington and the National Prayer Breakfast, visited the Embassy of Ukraine. The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was accompanied by Metropolitan Yevstratiy of Bila Tserkva.
This was reported by the OCU press service.
The main topic of the meeting with Ambassador Oksana Markarova was the current religious situation in Ukraine and the development of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church amid war. During the meeting, His Beatitude said that today the Orthodox Church of Ukraine runs about 9,000 parishes. The process of transition to the OCU is underway, it is gradual, but already now in several regions of Ukraine all existing Orthodox religious communities are part of the family of the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His Beatitude also noted that most of the OCU communities throughout the war have become not only a place of prayer, but also a kind of humanitarian hub, where parishioners rallied to help those affected by the Russian onslaught and Ukrainian defenders.
Separately, the parties discussed the peacemaking activities of the Church, in particular, Metropolitan Epifaniy told the Ambassador about a series of meetings with leaders of Churches and religious organizations that he held last year – a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Secretary General of the World Council of Churches Jerry Pillay and other respected representatives of religious communities. During each such dialogue, the topic was Russian aggression in Ukraine and its implications, the destructive ideology of the “Russian world”, the involvement of the structures of the Russian patriarchate in justifying and supporting the war of aggression, as well as the need for the unity of the civilized world in helping Ukraine.
Wrapping up the meeting, the Ambassador congratulated the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the 6th anniversary of his enthronement and his birthday, which His Beatitude celebrated on February 3, and presented a memorable gift.
In addition, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy awarded Oksana Markarova the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olha as a sign of respect for her humanitarian work and peacemaking efforts aimed at the victory of truth for Ukraine.
