Religious Leaders from Ukraine Visit Canada

Monday, April 23, 2012

An interfaith delegation of about 20 religious leaders from Ukraine is visiting North America at the end of this month. While in Canada, they will participate in an interfaith symposium on April 25, 2012, at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies (MASI) at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, on the theme “Honouring Andrey Sheptytsky: Ethical Action in Extreme Conditions”.

The delegation includes Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (whom the Ukrainian Catholic Church considers its Patriarch); Mr. Jacob Dov Bleich (Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine); Patriarch Filaret Denysenko (Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate), as well as senior representatives of the Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Adventist Churches in Ukraine, together with the head of the Muslim community in Ukraine. 

The delegation is scheduled to be in Toronto on April 23, and to meet with Cardinal Thomas Collins.  In Ottawa, there will be visits before the symposium,with representatives of the federal government. The visit to North America is sponsored by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (based in Toronto) and has been encouraged by the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine.