ROCOR Urges World Leaders to Convince Ukraine to Negotiate With Russia - Archbishop

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) is calling on world leaders to persuade Kiev to negotiate with Russia rather than encourage the conflict to continue, ROCOR Archbishop of Montreal and Canada Gabriel (Chemodakov) told Sputnik.

"In our epistle of the Council of Bishops to the flock, we express hope that the world leaders will seat down at the negotiating table, instead of encouraging more war, and seek to convince Ukraine to join the negotiating table with Russian officials to achieve peace as soon as possible," Gabriel said.

On Wednesday, the ROCOR hierarchs convened their nine-day-long Council of Bishops in New York.

Gabriel said the bishops were able to reach a mutual agreement on the issue of Ukraine and urge prayers for peace despite the differences in opinion.

"We did not discuss the situation regarding armaments nor called on the leaders to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine because I think that we, the Council of Bishops, do not want to speak in terms of weapons and war. Rather, we spoke about the possibility of reaching peace as soon as possible," Gabriel said.

On the first day of the Council of Bishops on September 13, the hierarchs elected Bishop Nicholas (Olhovsky) as a new Metropolitan and First Hierarch of ROCOR, Gabriel said.

The bishops then sent a request to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to confirm the decision and received his approval the following day, he said.

Gabriel pointed out that the bishops also discussed the question of the Western rite with respect to parishes that were Protestant or Catholic but recently became Orthodox Christian.

"We decided to meet with the representatives of the Western rite and try to work out something acceptable to them and us," Gabriel said.