Patriarch Theophilos III awards Novinsky with Golden Cross

Primate of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church Patriarch Theophilos III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine and people's deputy of Ukraine Vadim Novinsky

On January 30, 2019, Patriarch Theophilos III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine awarded the head of the Opposition Bloc faction in the Verkhovna Rada, people's deputy of Ukraine Vadim Novinsky, with the Golden Cross of the Higher Taxiarch of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.

“I sincerely thank His Beatitude and the entire Jerusalem Orthodox Church for supporting the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, especially in such difficult times for Ukrainian Orthodoxy,” wrote Novinsky on Facebook.

He said that he had visited Jerusalem as part of the delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by the UOC Chancellor Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary.

Patriarch Theophilos III awarded the Ukrainian deputy for services to the Jerusalem Orthodox Church.

Thanks to Novinsky’s patronage, restoration work was carried out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the years 2016-2017 for the first time in the last 200 years. Restorers reinforced the Edicule - a small domed chapel in the centre of the Rotunda of the temple, above the burial site of Jesus Christ.

Vadim Novinsky has also taken action to protect the UOC from persecution by some representatives of the state power of Ukraine. He promised that the “Opposition Bloc” party would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if the courts of Ukraine legalize the seizure of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras and other shrines of the UOC by their decisions.

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