In Prague, a priest of the UGCC took part in an international conference dedicated to Ukraine
The 26th international conference, Forum 2000, was held in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. Its main topic was devoted to Ukraine. With the blessing of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Fr. Igor Shaban, the Head of the UGCC Commission on Inter-confessional and Interreligious Relations, took part in it.
During the panel discussion, Father Ihor thanked the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for inviting him to this authoritative international forum and told how the Church and its faithful live in Ukraine at this time. The priest highlighted the activities of the charitable patriarchal foundation “Wise Cause”, which has already managed to help more than 50,000 needy families with food kits and evacuated several thousand people from the east and south of Ukraine with the help of volunteers.
During the conference, Fr. Ihor Shaban spoke with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Zbigniew Rau, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavský, whom he thanked for their solidarity and help for Ukrainians who were forced to flee the war.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, also addressed the participants of the Prague conference via online video broadcasting.
At the end of the conference, the participants signed a special manifesto in support of Ukraine “Prague Manifesto for a Free Ukraine”.
It is worth noting that the initiators of the international conference Forum 2000 were Czech President Vaclav Havel, Jewish writer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Elie Wiesel, and Japanese businessman and philanthropist Ryoichi Sasakawa. The first such conference was held in 1997.
The UGCC Department for Information
by the materials of the UGCC Commission on Inter-confessional and Interreligious Relations,
photos taken from Forum 2000 press service
