Introductory words by the editor-in-chief

Abstract

The thematic focus of this issue of the journal "Religious Freedom" was determined by the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Religious Freedom: Updating of Family Values", held on September 24-25, 2018 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since 1994, conferences, which discussed various aspects of the existence of religious freedom, have become traditional. They necessarily ended with publication of materials of public discussion. This year the conference was devoted to the XXV-year anniversary of the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (URA), authoritative in Ukraine and far beyond its borders. The conference was organized by the Institute of Philosophy named after G.S. Skovoroda of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies, the Institute of Religious Freedom. People's deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, members of the government, representatives of the councils of churches and religious organizations were invited to the speeches and reports in the Grand Conference Hall of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Academician-secretary of the Department of History, Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Valery Smoliy, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Philosophy named after G.S. Skovoroda Anatoly Yermolenko, Deputy Director, Head of the Department of Religious Studies of the Institute of Philosophy named after GS Skovoroda is Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Anatoly Kolodny.