KYIV. All-Ukraine Conference on pilgrimage started its work at Kyiv-Caves Monastery

Ukrainian Church

On January 24 at the conference hall of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra the All-Ukraine Conference on pilgrimage started its work.

Organizer is the pilgrimage center in the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

A solemn prayer service on the opening of the Conference at the Church of Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Monastery was led by chair of DECR UOC Archbishop Alexander of Pereysalv-Khmelnytskyy and Vishneve.

In remarks at the opening Archbishop Alexander stressed the need to consolidate efforts of the pilgrimage services and mutual assistance to each other for mutual benefit.

Addressing the Conference, Director of the Center for pilgrimage of the DECR UOC Volodymyr Telizhenko described the current state of pilgrimage movement in Ukraine and summed up the Center’s activities for the last year (note that the last conference of this kind took place first in October 2010 and it became a kind of “starting point” in the work of many pilgrimage services of Ukraine).

A range of issues discussed on the first day of the conference concerned church-canonical and legal aspects of the pilgrimage. They also covered the problem of pilgrimage for the servicemen, children and youth. At the conference a guidebook “Jerusalem – Three days without a guide” (by Victor Shcherbakov) was presented.

The program of the first day of the conference includes presentation of the documentary film “Treasure Queen Helena” created by the pilgrimage center of the DECR UOC together with the Synodal Information Department of the UOC and pilgrimage center “Thomas” (Germany, the city of Trier).

The film is dedicated to the history of Christian holy sites in Europe, many of which were found and saved by the Holy And Equal-to-the Apostles Queen Helena.

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