The lecturer of the Ostroh Academy participated in a conference in the USA

June 07, 2018

The Associate Professor of the Department of History of the National University of Ostroh Academy, PhD in History Andrii Smirnov has taken part in the commemorative events devoted to the 25th anniversary of the death of Patriarch Mstyslav Skrypnyk, which have taken place recently in the spiritual center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA (South Bound Brook, New Jersey).

On June 2, the clergy led by Metropolitan Anthony and Archbishop Daniel held a memorial service near the tomb of the Patriarch at the Holy Resurrection Mausoleum, which is located at the dungeon of St. Andrew Memorial Church. Later, a museum exhibition was opened there.

In the Hall of Intercession of the Theotokos, a solemn meal was held after which a commemorative conference began. The historian Andrii Smirnov made a report on Stepan Skrypnyk's socio-political and church activities. Bishop Antonii Shcherba shared his memories of the Metropolitan and the Patriarch. A well-known religious scholar from Kyiv Oleksandr Sahan profoundly analyzed the influence of the Patriarch Mstislav Skrypnyk on the development of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the consequences of his spiritual ministry.

The guests from Ukraine had an opportunity to get acquainted with the life of St. Andrew Memorial Church that is considered to be a kind of Ukrainian Jerusalem in America. They visited a consistory, a seminary, a library, a museum, a cultural center and a cemetery which is the largest and best-known Ukrainian necropolis in the Western hemisphere.

In addition, Andrii Smirnov had an opportunity to work in the church archive for several days on his doctoral studies about Ukrainian Orthodoxy during the Second World War.