On September 3, 2026, with the blessing of Archbishop John of Brest and Kobrin, an international scientific conference "Orthodoxy in the Historical Destinies of Slavic Peoples" was held at the Brest Hero Fortress Memorial Complex. The 430th anniversary of the Orthodox Brest Church Council".
The event was organized by the Belarusian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Brest Diocese, the Synodal Historical Commission of the Belarusian Orthodox Church and the Minsk Theological Academy. The conference was attended by historians, theologians, government and public figures, clergy, principals and teachers of Sunday and secondary schools. The total number of participants was more than 200 people.
The conference was preceded by a requiem mass in the garrison church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Brest Fortress in memory of the defenders of the Orthodox faith at the Brest Church Cathedral in 1596. The conference was opened by a performance by the choir of the clergy of the Brest Diocese under the direction of Archpriest Valery Gritsuk.
The welcoming speech of the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan Veniamin of Minsk and Zaslavl, to the participants of the international conference was read out by Archbishop John of Brest and Kobrin. Then the archpastor addressed the audience with a report.
The welcoming address of the Chairman of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, Pyotr Parkhomchik, was read out by the head of the Main Department of Ideological Work, Culture and Youth Affairs of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, Tatyana Gagakova. Oleg Murashev, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Brest, and Andrey Parfievich, Rector of Brest State Technical University, also addressed the audience with welcoming remarks. The welcoming speech of the Chairman of the Board of the Brest regional organizational structure Belarusian Society "Znanie", Rector of Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin Yuri Golubev was voiced by Victoria Sushko.
Then there were 12 reports on the topic of the conference. At the end of the forum, Archbishop John summed up the work, noting that the events of 1596 marked a turning point in the protection of the Orthodox faith and identity in the Belarusian lands. The conference served for a deeper scientific understanding of the events of the end of the 17th century and their impact on the further course of history, the official website of the Belarusian Orthodox Church reports. 
At the end of the 16th century, a confrontation arose among the clergy and laity in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between supporters and opponents of union with the Roman Catholic Church, which implied submission to the Pope and acceptance of the Catholic faith. In the autumn of 1596, two councils were held simultaneously in Brest — the Uniate council, at which the union was proclaimed, and the Orthodox Council. The state authorities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth consistently supported the Uniate Church in the future. 
The Orthodox Council was headed by Exarch Nikephoros, who had authority from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bishop Gedeon (Balaban) of Lviv, Bishop Mikhail (Kopystensky) of Peremyshl, and Prince Konstantin Ostrogsky. The participants of the Orthodox council refused to support the union and stated that the local council had no right to decide on unification without the consent of all the Eastern patriarchs. Exarch Nikephoros announced the excommunication of the bishops who had signed the union and defrocked them. The Orthodox also took a "vow of faith, conscience and honor" — not to obey the condemned hierarchs and to stand firm in the Orthodox faith.