New York, July 29, 2026
Photo: ria.ru
A petition has been launched opposing St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine’s decision to honor Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
The church, part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, announced Zelensky as the recipient of its 2026 Beacon of Hope Award earlier this month. The award will be presented at the second annual Beacon of Hope Dinner on September 26 at Casa Cipriani during United Nations General Assembly Week.
The petition, published on the website Orthodox Reflections, is accompanied by a letter addressed to the church’s Board of Trustees from Orthodox Christian Cassandra St. John.
The letter states that Zelensky is “ruling Ukraine as a police state, having suspended elections, silenced critics, and censored the media.” It further states that his government “has violently seized and repurposed more than 1,000 Ukrainian Orthodox Church properties” and “has beaten and arrested clerics and parishioners.” The letter calls on the church to rescind the award and select a different honoree.
The petition text states that Zelensky “is not a democratically elected head of state” and accuses him of having “cancelled elections, shut down his opposition, and engaged in brutal repression.”
It further points out that his government has “actively persecuted the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, even to the point of forcibly conscripting canonical Orthodox priests into the Ukrainian Army.” The text states that many American Orthodox belong to jurisdictions that pray for Metropolitan Onuphry, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the Ukrainian people at each Divine Liturgy, and describes the award as “a direct slap in the face to all Orthodox jurisdictions in North America that recognize the UOC as the canonical Church in Ukraine.”
Each signature on the petition triggers an email containing the petition text to the church, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, and the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A final copy with all collected signatures will be delivered to these bodies before the September dinner. The petition had gathered 262 signatures as of this writing.
The church has described the Beacon of Hope Award as recognizing “individuals whose lives and leadership reflect the enduring spirit of courage, resilience, and moral clarity in the face of adversity,” and has said Zelensky’s “steadfast defense of freedom and human dignity has inspired millions around the world.”
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