Politicians sometimes want war, sometimes peace, and people do not care about the motives of a military clash – for them it is pain and sorrow.

On September 21, 2020, on the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and the International Day of Peace, the International Civil Forum«People of the Peace»will be held in the Sviatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra. The event will be attended by residents of Ukraine and other countries who are interested in developing an action program to end the conflict and restore peaceful life in Donbass.

The decision to hold a peacemaking forum was made at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on August 17, 2020. The initiative was supported by representatives of civil society who are not politicians and do not represent political institutions.

The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphriy of Kiev and All Ukraine, shared his thoughts on the upcoming event:

«I am convinced that in order to start the peacemakingprocess, we must look into each other’s eyes. When we see the eyes of an opponent or even an enemy, many stereotypes that develop in the human soul and mind dissipate. Even with a word, we cannot express all our feelings and experiences, but our eyes speak about everything, and in them you can see what cannot be heard. Therefore, the most important thing is to look each other in the eyes. And that superficial, harmful for us, of which there is already a lot, will by itself disappear and we will have fewer tasks that need to be solved.

The absence of politicians [at the Forum«People of the Peace»] plays a positive role. Because politicians always pull something over to their side, which is not always objective and useful for the whole of Ukraine. For the party, for the politician, it may be useful, but for the society it will not. Therefore, I think the absence of politicians can both speed up this process and give people the right, not politicized, to understand their intentions and goals – and this is peace and harmony.

People should influence the peacemaking process, since it is not politicians who suffer from the war, but ordinary people. Therefore, the initiative for peace must come from them. Politicians sometimes want war, sometimes peace, each of them has his own view on this issue and personal interests. And people do not care about the motives of a military conflict – forthem it is real pain and sorrow. Therefore, they must desire peaceand talk about it».

The forum starts at 14.00. The live broadcast can be viewed on the YouTube channel «People of the Peace».