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Celebration of 1020th Anniversary of Baptism of Kyivan Rus Still Not Agreed Between Patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople

17.07.2008, [14:11] // Inter-Christian relations //

Moscow— Seven days before the the Universal Patriarch Bartholomew and Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow are to visit Kyiv, a number of details of the visits’ program remain unresolved, including protocol questions. This story was reported on 16 July to portal-credo.ru by a source in the Constantinople Patriarchate.

This particularly concerns the format of the services on 26 July at the Holy Sophia’s Cathedral and the visit to ancient shrines of Kyiv, which, according to representatives of the Moscow patriarchate, are “in the hands of schismatics.”

According to the above mentioned source, a considerable problem for the Moscow Patriarchate is the participation of the heads of different Orthodox Churches, including heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), and the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which is stipulated by the Ukrainian official protocol.

The Moscow Patriarchate continues to insist that such participation is unacceptable as it considers UOC-KP and UAOC “schismatic” or even “self-consecrated” and accuses UGCC of destructing its eparchies in Western Ukraine.

On his part, the Constantinople Patriarch agreed to participate in the protocol events and to contact with representatives of different religious associations of Ukraine.

In addition, according to portal-credo.ru, the Constantinople Patriarchate received from the Secretariat of Ukraine’s President a notification that Patriarch Alexis II had not yet sent the Ukrainian authorities an official confirmation of his intention to visit Ukraine and therefore, even such technicalities as the arrival of the patriarchal plane, the itinerary of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate delegation, and ensuring its security and accommodation remain unregulated.