print this page

“National Church for Ukraine” Civic Organization Created

06.03.2007, [14:33] // Church-state relations //

Kyiv – Ukrainian National Deputy Petro Yushchenko, brother of President Viktor Yushchenko, will head the civic organization A National Church for Ukraine, created on 3 March 2007. The goal of the group is to contribute to the development of the unification process of Ukrainian Orthodoxy and the creation of a single national church.

“We are calling upon everyone who supports the idea of national [“pomisna”] Ukrainian Orthodoxy to create regional centers of the organization A National Church for Ukraine,” said Petro Yushchenko.

“This organization aims to unite the efforts of society, of all Orthodox faithful. Ukraine has never before had any similar civic organization whose members were people who sincerely want to unite the Orthodox church,” said Archimandrite Yevstratii (Zoria), press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP).

According to Vasyl Anisimov, press secretary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), representatives of the UOC-MP did not participate in the inaugural conference of A National Church for Ukraine. “We were told that it was a closed session. We were not invited, despite the fact that its initiators and participants hunger for a single national Orthodox church. In my opinion, the creation of the organization A National Church for Ukraine is just another attempt of the UOC-KP to get closer to the government and, in this way, to exert pressure on the UOC-MP,” said Anisimov.

Source:

• http://www.eizvestia.com/articles/43/0/11117/