On October 29, 2024, a webinar “Ukraine’s Banning Russian Orthodox Church and Affiliated Organizations: Legal and Juridical Aspects” was held. On the invitation of the organizers, the head of the “Academic Initiative” Foundation Sergii Bortnyk spoke at the panel “Bottom-up Initiatives: What Impact Has the Law on Grassroots Dialogue Initiatives?”
In general, the webinar brought together experts representing the leading specialized centers of the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Ukraine. The initiators and moderators of the webinar were Thomas Bremer, Regina Elsner and Dmytro Vovk. In total, 12 short reports were delivered on six panels, after which special attention was paid to discussing various aspects related to the law in the form of questions and answers.
In his speech, Sergii Bortnyk stressed that despite the rhetoric, today in Ukraine we observe mostly confrontation of two Orthodox jurisdictions, which impose in their own way positions of exclusivism. For social peace, Ukraine needs instead the coexistence of two large jurisdictions, and one of the most positive forms of such a search for church reconciliation is the “Sophia Brotherhood” initiative. Its peculiarity lies in the mutual recognition of partners – clergy and laity of the UOC and the OCU, as well as active contacts and involvement in the process of representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
It is planned that in a short time the video of the webinar will be posted on the website of the “Orthodox Christian Studies Center” of the Fordham University https://publicorthodoxy.org/ and on other online resources.
Already now the report of Sergii Bortnyk is accessible here.
Source: academic-initiative.org.ua