On September 14, 2024, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) met with the US Secretary of State (2018-2021) Michael Pompeo. The meeting was held at the Metropolitan House of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv” (Kyiv).
Representatives of churches and religious organizations thanked M. Pompeo for the assistance provided by the United States to Ukraine in its war for independence. They highlighted the issue of religious persecution of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the destruction of religious buildings of various denominations by Russian aggressors. Furthermore, the UCCRO members informed M. Pompeo about the state of religious freedom in Ukraine under martial law, the spiritual and humanitarian activities of denominations during the war, and current issues of church-state relations, in particular, the status of clergy, which the UCCRO resolves in dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities.
In their speeches, the members of the Council emphasized the high level of religious freedom in Ukraine and the importance of protecting it from the use of the pseudo-religious chauvinistic ideology of the “Russian world” by the aggressor country.
In memory of the meeting, members of the UCCRO presented Michael Pompeo with a painting depicting a man in the arms of Jesus Christ against the backdrop of ruins resulting from Russian missile attacks on Ukraine. The painting also included a quote from the Bible:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest". (Matthew 11:28). This picture was painted on boards from ammunition boxes from the Avdiivka area, where the Ukrainian Bible Society carries out pastoral ministry among the defenders. M. Pompeo thanked the Ukrainian religious leaders for the meeting and assured them of further support for the Ukrainian people and its heroic soldiers.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Olena Kovalska and Head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelenskyy also attended the meeting with the UCCRO.
