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Patriarch Kirill has Finished His Visit to Ukraine
07-08-2009
RIVNE-The ten-day pastoral visit of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Ukraine finished on Wednesday afternoon, August 5, 2009, Interfax reported. The primate visited eleven cities and towns of the country.
Patriarch Kirill left from the airport of the western Ukrainian city of Rivne for Moscow at about 4:30 p.m. local time.
Some unique events distinguished this visit: the first time in history the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate took place in Kyiv, for the first time ever the Russian Church primate visited the place where St. Volodymyr had been baptized in Khersones and celebrated the Divine Liturgy there.
Patriarch Kirill's pastoral visit to Ukraine started on July 27 in Kyiv with festive celebrations of the Rus' Baptism. From that day and during the whole period of his stay in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill emphasized the importance of spiritual unity between peoples of historical Rus now divided by state borders.
These statements aroused harsh reactions from church schism advocates. Nationalists from the Svoboda Association even demanded to initiate a criminal case against the primate of the Russian Church and deport him from the country.
However, according to chronicle of the patriarch's visit, his opponents were always in a minority while crowds of supporters enthusiastically welcomed the high guest. Many of them even came from other regions of the country to pray with the patriarch.
Today's celebrations in the Pochayiv Lavra in Volyn culminated the patriarchal program (by the way, it has been the first time a patriarch of Moscow visited this part of western Ukraine.) Despite the forecasts, the opponents did not manage to disturb celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the arrival of the Pochayiv Icon of the Mother of God as they were very few and not even allowed into the Lavra, where about 50 thousand parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate prayed.
The main impression the patriarch got from his visit to Ukraine was that "people keep sincere faith in their hearts despite the numerous hardships and divisions in political and social spheres that penetrated into church life."
"I'm deeply convinced that this power of people's spirit will help the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian society overcome hardships and strive to achieve the objectives that will contribute to the spiritual expectations of the Ukrainian people," Patriarch Kirill said summing up his visit.
http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;30797/
