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Church and State compromise carefully continues
12-09-2008
By Svitlana Yaroshenko
KYIV-With city, state and church authorities in tow, the Kyiv City Council of Churches and Religious Organizations met in Kyiv's City Hall to discuss the future of Church-State relations. City authorities, members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO), other religious heads and Oleksandr Sagan, head of the State Committee on Matters of Nationalities and Religions were present at the meeting. Deputy Mayor Serhii Rudyk moderated.
The meeting was opened by the Kyiv City Council's secretary, Oles Dovhyi. He thanked everyone for their tolerance towards each other, honoring Kyiv's ecumenical reputation. He pointed to cooperation between the city council and religious organizations in matters of land allocation for the construction of churches, respect to the city budget, event co-organizing by various faiths, and property and spirituality.
Oles Dovhyi said city hall had funded many charitable projects, particularly the construction of houses for the homeless, elderly and special needs individuals. Dovhyi also pointed out that the subject of Christian Ethics has been introduced in Kyiv's schools.
Sagan introduced a draft of church and state relations for the next four years. "[The purpose of the program is the] creation of conditions to ensure the constitutional right of the capital residents to the freedom of worship, final overcoming/elimination of the negative consequences of the totalitarian policy of the former Soviet Union on religion, ensuring of restoration of violated justice, protection of rights and lawful interests of religious organizations, further process of their moral and political rehabilitation, improvement of relations of mutual religious and worldview tolerance," said Sagan.
The four-chapter document dictated the goals of the program, including the promotion of activity of religious organizations; city events and celebration of religious festivals of the Ukrainian people; joint programs of the Kyiv City State Administration and charitable religious organizations to support the disadvantaged; and scholarly and educational work and information support.
http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;24558/
