On Wednesday, February 13, His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr received at his residence in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Mr.Ioannis Valinakis, accompanied by the Ambassador of Greece in Ukraine, Mr. Haris Dmitriu.
During the meeting Mr.Valinakis told of the main goal of his stay in Ukraine - participation in the session of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU countries and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation countries. The Greek diplomat gave an account of the state of Greek-Ukrainian relations and pointed out that the high standard of friendly relations between our countries was possible also because our nations were united by the mutual Orthodox faith. Mr. Valinakis also shared his impressions of his excursion to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra: "Today I had an opportunity to see by myself the things I was told much about. It's impressing." His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr noted in response that we always kept in mind that we had accepted the Orthodox faith from the Greeks. It is a warrant of friendly relations between our nations.
The Archpastor presented Mr. Valnakis and the Ambassador with photo albums "Metropolitan Volodymyr: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church... there is my life in it" as a keepsake of the meeting.
During the visit to Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra the delegation was accompanied by the staff member of the Department for external Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Mykolay Danylevych.
Photos by Maxim Brusnika | |
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