The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill began a ten-day visit to Ukraine today, Unian news agency reports. A crowd of about 2000 people, including leader of the Party of the Regions Viktor Yanukovich and other political leaders, gathered at St. Valdimir’s Hill in Kiev to meet the religious leader. He conducted a service in the church there.
About 300 people gathered along Trekhsvyatitelskaya Street in Kiev, which leads to St. Vladimir’s Hill, to protest against the patriarch’s visit. According to Vzglyad newspaper, about 50 protesters from the nationalist organization, the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense fought with Cossacks who had gathered to greet the patriarch. Police broke the brawl up .
While the Russian Orthodox Church, which Patriarch Kirill leads, is the largest Orthodox confession in Ukraine, it faces competition from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchy, which was reestablished in a breach with the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not acknowledged by other branches of the Orthodox Church, but about 20 percent of Ukrainian Christians belong to it. A third, smaller, Orthodox church, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, also exists.
The Russian patriarch conducted a meeting of the Holy Synod at the historical Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra monastery in Kiev. He also plans to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. The patriarch stated that he plans to discuss with the president, “what can and should be done so that there would be peace in Ukraine and around Ukraine.”
When asked if he would meet with representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he responded that he would follow his prearranged schedule of meetings, but added “I have received such requests and we will think about how to respond to them.”
