(Bratislava) – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko conveyed his greetings to members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches (AUCCRO) on the occasion of its 20th anniversary celebrated these days. He thanked the churches for volunteering and aid to the army, internally displaced people and residents of the occupied territories. According to Olexandr Turchynov, Secretary of National Security and Defense of Ukraine, “due to active and effective cooperation of denominations in Ukraine there are neither interfaith nor inte-ethnic conflicts”. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, notes that AUCCRO is primarily a social organization, as it consolidates citizens of various religions, pointing to three major accomplishments in the history of the council of religious leaders: „establishment of a platform for interfaith dialog, promotion of the development of the civil society and increasing of the prestige of Ukraine abroad. Patriarch Shevchuk recalled the words of St. John Paul II during his visit to Ukraine in 2001, who called AUCCRO “the greatest laboratory of ecumenism”. Patriarch Filaret, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate urged in his speech to “rally around a single goal – the preservation of the Ukrainian state”. His words were supported by the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Yaakov Dov Bleich, who stressed that although the Church does not interfere in politics, when it comes to saving the state and its future, tthe Church “does not have the right to remain silent”.