On February 16 on the occasion of his enthronement His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Greece received the delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which took part in the celebrations as part of the official delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the course of the meeting Archbishop Mytrofan greeted His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos on his elevation to the Archbishop's throne of the Greek Orthodox Church and reported to His Beatitude the greeting words of His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr on the occasion of the enthronement. Also the Panagia was presented to Archbishop Hieronymos on behalf of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr.
Vladyka Mytrofan also thanked His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos for his pastoral care of our compatriots - the Orthodox Ukrainians who found the spiritual support in many churches of Greece, in particular in the parish in Athens, whose rector archimandrite Prokopios (Petridis) was the graduate of the Leningrad Theological Academy, spoke Russian and had more than once visited Ukraine.
By the official data in Greece there are about 20 thousand of legal residents - Ukrainians. The Ukrainian diaspora occupies the third place by number among the national minorities of Greece. The Ukrainian diplomats in this country state that the true number of our compatriots in Greece amounts to 60-80 thousands, the most part of which are illegal residents.
Vladyka Mytrofan also thanked His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos for his understanding of the difficulties that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church faced and for his support in the case of overcoming schism.
Having thanked for greetings His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos said some warm words about Ukraine and admitted being to our country off-the-record several times. "In my Metropolis of Levadeia we used to receive about 300-400 children from Ukraine every summer for recreation and rest. I have been to the Crimea and hold the Holy Hierarch Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) in high esteem", said the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, adding that he was personally acquainted with Metropolitan Lazarus of the Crimea and Simpheropol.
Other members of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church also took part in the meeting - Metropolitan of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk Sergiy, Secretary of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on the intra-Orthodox relations protopriest Nikolay Balashov, a staff member of the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Mykolay Danylevych, Secretary of the Voronezh Diocesan Administration archimandrite Andrey (Tarasov) and a staff member of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate A.G. Churyakov.
Priest Mykolay Danylevych
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