Martyr Shushanik, Queen of Georgia

Commemorated on July 29
















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SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's, even 2007!

The initiator of elimination of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church could be canonized

23 September 2008, 12:16

Kiev, September 23, Interfax - The Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaves open the possibility to canonize the priest Gabriel Kostelnik who was the initiator of the elimination of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the unification of Uniates and Orthodox.

The Church has already begun to work at appropriate documents, Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia said, cited by Religious Information Service of Ukraine.

"According to our procedure of canonization, a martyr really had to suffer for Christ or for the Church, but not to die by chance. Moreover he shouldn't be a heretic or a schismatic. As for the pious, the Reverend Fathers, there should be the sanctity of life and authority. Kostelnik is somewhere in between a martyr and a pious", the Archbishop said during the press conference in Lvov.

He noticed that the main task today is to explain some Father Gabriel's complex teological formulas, his positions on a set of questions. According to Archbishop Augustine, the process of canonization will last at least a year.

"First it is necessary to study all details and to suggest his figure for the Commission on Canonization and for the Holy Synod", the hierarch explained.

Lvov Diocese of the Ukraine Orthodox Church celebrated on September, 19-20, 60th anniversary of the death of Father Gabriel.

Fr. Gabriel (first the priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, then - of the Russian Orthodox Church) came to Orthodoxy since 1920's, when the NKVD destroyed the Church. He was the ideological heir of Galician-Russian confessors of Orthodoxy who were killed at concentration camps before the First World War.

Fr. Gabriel became also the organizer of the Lvov Council in 1946, where it was decided to abolish the decisions of the Uniate Brest Council in 1596, to "break with the Vatican and to return to the native Orthodox faith".

In July 1948, Fr. Gabriel took an active part in the celebrations in Moscow on the occasion of 500th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church. On September 20, 1948, after liturgy in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Lvov, he was killed by two shots from a handgun on the way home. The murderer was surrounded by a crowd of believers and shot himself. He was a member of a terrorist group, led by Roman Shukhevich, chief of the Ukrainian Rebel Army (UPA).

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Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko decorated with Order of Miner's Glory of third degree in Luhansk today

29-08-2008 20:28

Ms Tymoshenko said that she had so far been awarded only the Order of St. Great Martyr Barbara by the Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian Premier has no state awards unlike other government officials. "This is because I have always been in opposition even when I was in power," Yuliya Tymoshenko noted. She has recently been ranked 17th in the ratings of the world's most powerful women according to the American Forbes magazine.

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Orthodox (UOC-MP) Head Visits Simferopol

22.08.2008, [14:23] // UOC-MP //

Simferopol—The main aim of the visit of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), to southern Ukraine’s Simferopol Eparchy is to participate in celebratory events on the occasion of the beatification of Archbishop Hurii (Karpov). The event is to take place in Simferopol on 23 August. Metropolitan Volodymyr arrived in Crimea on 19 August 2008.

The head of UOC-MP was met by UOC-MP Metropolitan Lazar (Shvets) of Simferopol and Crimea as well as the head of the Council of Ministers of the Crimean Autonomous Republic, Viktor Plakida, and the head of the republic’s Parliament, Anatolii Hryshchenko.

Metropolitan Volodymyr is being accompanied during his visit by the superior of the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves, Archbishop Pavel (Lebid) of Vyshhorod, Archbishop Luka (Kovalenko) of Konotop and Hlukhiv, and his personal secretary, Bishop Oleksandr (Drabynko) of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi.

Metropolitan Volodymyr visited the women’s monastery of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol. During the visit, he presented an icon of Prince Volodymyr to Ihumena (Mother Superior) Yevseviia.

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Ukrainians wonder what Georgia crisis means for them

By Brian Bonner McClatchy Newspapers

KIEV, Ukraine — Russia's invasion of Georgia has unsettled this former Soviet republic, which like Georgia has applied for membership in NATO but now fears that the U.S. could do little to prevent similar Russian action here.

"If the West swallows the pill and forgives Russia the Georgian war, the invasion of 'peacekeeping tanks' into Ukraine will just be a matter of time," Oleksandr Suchko, the research director of the Kiev-based Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, wrote on Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), a leading online news site.

Still, not everyone here thinks that Russia would invade Ukraine, which is nearly nine times larger than Georgia, 10 times more populous and much better armed. Many note, moreover, that Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, is highly unpopular and isn't expected to win re-election in 2010.

There are many disputes between the countries, however.

Ukraine has a long-standing issue with the presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, a holdover from when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. Many in Ukraine want the Russians gone in 2017, when the lease agreement expires, but Russia has been suggesting that it intends to stay longer.

Russian politicians also provoke Ukrainian ire by reminding them that the Crimean peninsula was a gift from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, giving rise to fears that Moscow might stoke secessionist sentiments in the area, which is part of Ukraine but inhabited predominantly by ethnic Russians.

Other supposed slights fan tensions.

One that burns, though perhaps apocryphal, is a supposed conversation between Russian then-President Vladimir Putin and President Bush during the April NATO-Russia Council summit in Bucharest, Romania, at which the membership applications of Ukraine and Georgia were delayed.

Putin supposedly told Bush that "Well, you understand, George, Ukraine isn't even a state," according to Russia's newspaper Kommersant, citing a diplomatic source in attendance.

Many here suspect Russian involvement in the still-unsolved and nearly fatal dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko, who fell ill while he was a presidential candidate in 2004. The Kremlin backed his rival, Viktor Yanukovych, whose path to power was blocked when the democratic Orange Revolution overturned the results of a rigged election.

Yushchenko flew to Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, earlier this week in a show of support for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, and said Thursday that Russia must seek Ukraine's permission before moving its warships out of port. Russian leaders responded by saying they'd ignore Yushchenko.

The two countries also have an ongoing dispute over the price of natural gas. Ukraine is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies, as is much of Europe, while Russia depends on Ukraine's transit pipelines to carry its gas to customers in other nations.

Even religion is a source of friction in the mainly Orthodox Christian countries. The most recent spat came during last month's events celebrating the 1,020th anniversary of the conversion from paganism to Christianity of Kyivan Rus, the medieval empire from which the modern nations of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus arose.

Yushchenko irritated Moscow by asking Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the nominal leader of the world's Orthodox faithful, to recognize a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Currently, Ukrainians are divided, with millions of faithful still loyal to Russian Patriarch Alexei II.

Still, many here also have a hard time imagining a Russian-Ukrainian military conflict.
Ukrainians and Russians share centuries of Slavic kinship — Georgians have a separate cultural history — and rule by czars and Soviets. Ukrainians, stuck between Hitler and Stalin during World War II, are accustomed to navigating unfavorable geographic positions. Moreover, some 8 million of Ukraine's 46 million people are ethnic Russians.

Polls show that Ukrainians are divided over the prospect of NATO membership, with many opposed and others ambivalent.

That ambivalence is clear in interviews.

"Russia will never invade Ukraine, not even for Sevastopol," said Sergei Ribak, a security guard in Kiev. "This thesis is ridiculous."

Others aren't so sure, but draw different conclusions about what Ukraine's foreign policy should be.

"I agree that, under certain circumstances, a Russian invasion of Ukraine is possible," said Elena Guzva, a Kiev homemaker. "That's why Ukraine should be more serious about maintaining balanced and friendly relations with our eastern neighbor in order to avoid the risk."

(Bonner is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

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Ukraine's presidential secretariat blames Tymoshenko as she didn't support the idea to set up a local Church in the country

15 August 2008, 12:58

Kiev, August 15, Interfax - The Ukrainian presidential secretariat criticized Yulia Tymoshenko's government as it didn't support the idea of setting up a local Orthodox Church in the country and didn't participate in the celebrations of the 1020th anniversary of Russia's Baptism.

It is mentioned in the secretariat's investigation voiced by its deputy head Andrey Kislinsky in a briefing.

Besides, Tymoshenko was accused of conducting backstage talks with Moscow "so that it supports her at the coming presidential elections."

The Ukrainian prime was almost the only representative of supreme authorities who paid respects to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia during his stay in Kiev.

While Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko extended his hospitality to the Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew Tymoshenko was in the shade. However, she conveyed Alexy II a bunch of roses on her behalf, which was handed over to the primate at the gala night in the Ukraine palace on the last day of his visit.

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Ukraine stops broadcasting Russian Orthodox TV channel Soyuz

11 August 2008, 11:11

Moscow, August 11, Interfax - About 25 operators of cable television in Kiev, Sevastopol and Odessa terminated their cooperation with Soyuz.

"Broadcasting of the Soyuz Orthodox TV channel is stopped in Ukraine," press-service of the Ukrainian Union of Orthodox Citizens told Interfax-Religion.

The interviewee of the agency said it became a compulsory measure taken by operators "to execute decisions of the Ukrainian National Security Council on "cleanup" of informational space in the country."

"These repressions will have the converse effect - people will strive to get Soyuz back, to pick up Orthodox broadcast through satellites and Soyuz will have more actual analytical programs especially on situation in Ukraine," the Union of Orthodox Citizens said.

They reminded it was "not the first "Orange" act against Orthodox television: Orthodox channel Kievskaya Rus was barred from broadcasting after "the Orange Revolution."

"Information is the most important factor of our life, thus the attempts to deprive millions of Orthodox Ukrainian citizens of their right on information are the direct persecutions of Orthodoxy," the press service stressed.

"It's clear Orthodox majority in Ukraine doesn't want to listen to anti-canonical anti-church absurd about "local Ukrainian Church" and "Orthodox Pope" in the person of the Constantinople Patriarch, but those who seek separation of the Ukrainian Church from the Russian spare no effort to impose this absurd on Ukraine," representatives of Orthodox community stated.

They believe, "human rights organizations and Russian Foreign Ministry should focus on" the situation with rights of Orthodox citizens in Ukraine and "ban on broadcasting of Orthodox channel Soyuz."

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Kiev spat underlines a powerful but vulnerable Orthodox Church

31/07/2008 Moscow News №30 2008

Another schism - barely avoided this week in Kiev where Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox clerics gathered to celebrate the 1020th anniversary of the conversion of Kievan Rus to Christianity - underlined just how vulnerable the Orthodox Church remains to geopolitical ploys.

Amid Russia's economic and political stability, the Church is at the forefront of what some public figures are already calling a spiritual renaissance. Russia's Constitution separates church and state, stipulating independence of one from the other. It recognizes four "traditional" confessions in Russia: Orthodox Chris­tianity, Islam, Judaism and Budd­hism. But despite the legal separation, the Orthodox Church, which was a partner to the state under the Tsar and then a victim under Com­munism, continues to occupy a precarious role as "traditional" religion, a force of civil society, and, at times, a political pawn all at once. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's at­tempt to use the anniversary to get Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to recognize the local Ukrainian church's independence from Moscow highlights both the tragic political legacy of the Church and how it struggles at the same time to cater to the needs of an increasingly religious population both at home and abroad.

A little over a year after its historic reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, a New York-based breakaway arm, the Moscow Pat­riarchate, as the Russian Church is often called, was on the verge of another schism over whether Ukraine's 35 million Orthodox Christians should belong to a patriarchate that answers to Moscow or one that is recognized as independent. The arrival of Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, was a tempting occasion for Uk­raine's leaders. By Tuesday, Moscow's Church officials were saying that a schism had been avoided.

"Immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union, under the influence of particular political forces in Ukraine, a schism was formed that tried to legalize itself all these years," Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Mos­cow Patriarchate's external relations department told news agencies Tuesday. "There was danger that it could happen in connection with the 1020th anniversary of the christening of Russia. By God's mercy, this terrible event did not take place."

Metropolitan Kirill was speaking of Bartholomew, to whom President Yushchenko had appealed on Satur­day to allow the creation of a Uk­rainian Church. There was no clear statement from Bartholomew, and his comments on the matter were interpreted by the Ukrainian side that he was ready to consider. Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II, who flew to Kiev for a two-day visit over the weekend, called on unity.

"We must cherish the unity of our Slavic brotherhood. It's more important than any political aims," he said in televised comments. Alexy II met with Bartholomew on Sunday and took part in religious ceremonies marking the anniversary.

But with both Ukrainian and Russian officials involved in the tug of war, the Kiev spat underlined that politicians were still prone to using the Church to serve their political interests - in Ukraine's case, staking out an identity separate from Russia.

"There are two paths to independence for the Church - one is earthly, the other is heavenly," says Father Andrei Kurayev, a deacon and professor at the Moscow Spiritual Academy, who visited Kiev for the celebrations.

"The earthly path involves reducing the mechanisms of dependence on state officials. Primarily, this is creating a viable, independent church economy. In Europe, church leaders have introduced an obligatory tithe for church members, making the church more independent from the government." Father Andrei also cited what he called the European model, where the Pope, who is in a different state altogether, is literally beyond reach of any government.

"But there is another, spiritual path towards independence," he said in a telephone interview with The Moscow News. "This is the spiritual freedom of the Christian. And it is easier for a monk to obtain this freedom than it is for a bishop or a patriarch, who answer not only for their own souls, but for the souls of millions of other people."

A History of Schisms

The origins of the Russian Ortho­dox Church go beyond the 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus. But its conservative structure has at once served to preserve a unique and separate legacy as one of Christianity's oldest churches, and at the same time made it vulnerable to schism.

The official birthday of the Church marks the year that Prince Vladimir I of Kiev officially adopted Byzantine Rite Christianity, the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, setting up for an irrevocable schism with the Catholic Church, which occurred in 1054. The most notable attempt to reunite the two Churches - one that traces its apostolic succession through the Patriarch of Con­stan­tinople and the Catholic Church, which traces its succession to Apostle Peter - was the Council of Florence in 1439, but it failed when the Russian Prince Basil II of Moscow rejected a compromise with the Catholic Church.

The major internal schism in the Russian Orthodox Church - the Raskol - occurred in the mid 17th century. In 1653 Patriarch Nikon attempted to launch a series of reforms aimed to modernize the Church and bring its practices in accordance with modern Greek counterparts. Notably, this meant using three fingers to cross oneself instead of two, but the reforms also involved centralization of the Church. These "innovations" triggered a fervent opposition led by Archpriest Avvakum, but were nevertheless adopted as canonical law. Avvakum and other leaders of the opposition were executed in 1682, while the reforms themselves spaw­ned the Raskol movement of anathemized "old believers" who scattered across Russia and the world.

The Revolution of 1917 dealt such a serious blow to the Orthodox Church that disputes about the succession of the current structure live on to this day. Within two decades, the Bolsheviks wiped out all but a handful of churches across the country, leaving less than 500, and executing nearly 100,000 priests. In an effort to survive in an increasingly hostile state, Metropolitan Sergy declared the Church's acceptance of Soviet authority. But some decendents of exiled clerics refuse to recognize this declaration, and hence the legitimacy of the current Church.

The Revolution thus led to a schism that at first seemed as irrevocable as the Raskol nearly 300 years before. But this time it was geopolitical instead of internal, pitting the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia against the Orthodox Church within the Soviet Union. It ended after decades of talks in May 2007, with the signing of the reunification pact, titled "The Canonical Com­munion Act" and a ceremony at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior attended by then President Vladimir Putin.

Towards a Renaissance?

While the 1990s saw something of a rebirth among Russian Orthodox Christians and the number of renovated churches surged, current statistics do not suggest that there are very many regular churchgoers in Russia. Instead, religion, while indeed beginning to play an important role in people's lives, does so without outside evidence.

A 2000 poll by the Foundation for Public Opinion found that just 6 percent of Russians attend church at least once a month, while 18 percent attended church less than once a year. According to a January 2007 poll by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, 63 percent of Russians consider themselves Ortho­dox, while only 118,000 Muscovites attended church services for Easter in 2006, according to the Moscow police.

But religious feeling is notoriously difficult to measure. Church spokesmen dispute these numbers, saying it is impossible to count the people who attended church for Easter because people attend at different times. Meanwhile, some public figures believe that spirituality is playing a much larger role in the lives of Russians than it used to.

"We are witnessing a rebirth of the Orthodox faith and spirituality in general across the country," Yelena Zelinskaya, one of the chairs of the Public Chamber's Cultural and Spiritual Preservation Commission, told The Moscow News.

Religious organizations are sprouting across the nation, some trying to ban offensive or violent content on television. And while at times it goes too far, Zelinskaya acknowledges this as a positive tendency of increased religious awareness.

"The interest in our historical and spiritual past and present - the interest in the meaning of life - is back after being lost for the last century," she says. "At one point families simply tried to survive, but now spirituality has become an aspect of our lives."

But as for the Kiev spat, Zelinskaya doubted that such controversies would meaningfully affect individuals and their religions. "It's a news event and it will be forgotten," she says.

By Anna Arutunyan

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Letting Them Be

Comment by Georgy Bovt

Special to Russia Profile



Victor Yushchenko Calls for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Separate From Russia’s


Last weekend, celebrations of the 1020th anniversary of the Christening of Russia took place in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. But given Ukraine’s desire to continuously re-affirm its sovereignty, along the numerous factors that presently aggravate the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, any kind of constructive dialogue between the two countries in the near future is impossible, as even such holidays have political implications.



Victor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine, uses every chance he has to strengthen Ukrainian sovereignty, as he understands it. He never misses an opportunity to do so. Therefore, it has been obvious for a long time that the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the Christening of Russia would be employed by the Ukrainian president precisely for this purpose, which is why from the very beginning, the celebration was bound to have a political resonance. Russian secular and churchly authorities saw it coming. Perhaps this is why some politicians were originally intent on “putting up a fight with Ukrainian nationalists” and on not giving in under any circumstances. For example, it was clear in advance that Deputy Konstantin Zatulin would not be permitted to cross the Ukrainian border, because the Ukrainian authorities are following the notorious “black list” policy with regard to Russian politicians, especially those who dare to make public statements that insult or challenge Ukrainian sovereignty. Zatulin is one such politician: along with the Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, he has made the most controversial remarks regarding the fact that Crimea and Sevastopol should not “belong” to Ukraine.


Zatulin went to Ukraine anyway. And, of course, he was deported.



The topics of Crimea and the “unjustly given over to Ukraine” (in the interpretation of a number of Russian politicians) Sevastopol have become customary stumbling blocks in the relationship between the two states, while the subjects of church and religion have caused no controversy for a comparatively long time. This made the escalation of tensions that took place in connection with the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the Christening of Russia only more predictable.


The Ukrainian authorities met the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I (the country’s highest officials greeted him at the airport) in an emphatically solemn and ceremonious manner, while their attitude toward the visit of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II was just as emphatically unfriendly and even scornful.



While greeting Bartholomew I, president Yushchenko even dared to make some political statements, going as far as to make a public appeal to create a “separatist,” independent Orthodox church in Ukraine, which would be subordinated directly to Constantinople, not to the Moscow Patriarchate.



The Constantinople Patriarch should be given credit too – he did not support this initiative. When he later met with Alexy II, he supported the idea of a dialogue between the two churches to settle any controversial, disputable matters: “When any problems arise between the brotherly Orthodox churches, dialogue is all the more useful,” said Bartholomew I during his meeting with Alexy II in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.



In his turn, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Foreign Church Relations Department, Metropolitan Kirill, hurried to make an assuring statement that the separation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Moscow is not forthcoming: “This topic is not on our agenda. It is in some people’s heads… These are different matters – political projects and church life. And it is very important for political projects to not interfere with the church life and to not destroy it.”


Nevertheless, political projects continue to remain in some people’s heads, and as of right now it is not very clear as to what exactly can knock the former out of the latter: in recent years, the Ukrainian regime headed by Yushchenko has launched a humanitarian attack aimed not only at increasing interest and respect for Ukrainian culture and language, but also at juxtaposing Ukrainian culture with Russian and Ukraine’s history with Russia’s. In essence, Yushchenko is taking the “Baltic path:” the Soviet Baltic republics made their way to independence namely by arousing, in the late 1980s, interest in all things pertaining to their ethnic history.



Ukraine obtained its independence in a different manner, but today the Ukrainian elite is essentially faced with the task of finally and fully legitimizing the Ukrainian statehood, in the humanitarian field among others.


In all likelihood, while the policy of strengthening Ukrainian sovereignty continues to be realized in the next few years, negotiations with our Ukrainian counterparts on practically any issues are doomed to face difficulties, since it will be challenging to have a conversation about specific economic problems, interests and deals, and hearing something about Golodomor and about whose fault it was in response. You talk about trade or gas transit problems, and the other side replies with something formal, while referring to the necessity of separating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian one, because this is presently seen as politically more significant. Or you talk about somehow arranging a way to keep the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, and the other side starts telling you that Sevastopol is not in the least the city of Russian naval glory, but the city of Ukrainian glory in the same field, and this is a fundamental difference. On the whole, it becomes obvious that nobody is really planning to come to any agreements on essential matters.



What can we agree on when more and more differences surface at the level of culture and history? No matter how paradoxical this sounds, at the beginning of the 21st century, it becomes difficult to agree on practically anything. And this is why I, for example, do not see any prospects for negotiations about Sevastopol, and not even about the WTO, which Ukraine just recently joined and now burns with desire to set its own conditions for Russia’s acceptance into the organization.


It seems that the young Ukrainian statehood, and primarily the young Ukrainian political elite, simply needs to “sow its wild oats.” This is like trying to have an “educational conversation” with a teenager at an awkward age – in this case, normal logic and usual methods do not work; the first thing you need is titanic, extreme patience. Any new attempt to irritate such partners will spur all kinds of nonsense, like a demonstrative, “out of spite” visit by the most polemical and militant Russian deputies, is of as much use as thrusting a stick into an anthill. Unless, of course, it is not an attempt to completely demolish this anthill.



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Moscow Patriarchate believes Yushchenko out of reckoning for Bartholomew I's visit

30 July 2008, 15:25



Moscow, July 30, Interfax - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko didn't manage to "legalize" Ukrainian schismatics during the Russia's Baptism 1020 celebration, the Russian Orthodox Church believes.



"Frankly speaking, Yushchenko is out of reckoning for the visit of the Constantinople Patriarch. Representative of schismatic jurisdiction didn't participate in official events," acting secretary for Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Fr. Georgy Ryabykh said.



According to him, if earlier many Ukrainians considered "ephemeral and strange that world Orthodoxy doesn't recognize schismatics, today they have seen with their own eyes what it means."



"No matter how hard the president tried to pay compliments to the Constantinople Patriarch he couldn't made him come in sight with schismatic leaders," Fr. Georgy said.



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"Presidential lodge" disputed over cold beer at the liturgy in Kiev

30 July 2008, 12:21



Moscow, July 30, Interfax - The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate criticizes Ukrainian authorities for their attempts to set up an independent local Church contrary to the opinion of the majority of people.



"Viktor Yushchenko abused his authority, violated the constitution and ignored the opinion of hierarchs on the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church outspoken at the Bishops' Council in Moscow," Archbishop Ionafan of Tulchin and Bratslav said at the Moscow-Kiev video bridge organized to sum up the results of Ukrainian celebrations of the 1020th anniversary of Russia's Baptism.



Thus, the Ukrainian hierarch commented on the initiative of the Ukrainian President Yushchenko to establish an Orthodox Church independent from Moscow.



According to the archbishop, Yushchenko "interferes in a strictly canonical field of church organization and administration." "He demonstrated it more than once when meeting Patriarch Bartholomew."



Archbishop Ionafan stressed, Ukrainian autocephaly (church independence - IF) was impossible without complete unanimity between people and hierarchs on the question, which was lacking.



The archbishop also said that the Ukrainian Church Synod stated twice that the establishment of the local Church was unviable.



The hierarch also told that when he prayed at the liturgy near the monument to St. Vladimir the Baptist he "was distracted by talks in the presidential lodge and involuntarily overheard them."



"You won't believe me! They talked about cold beer! What restaurant serves it colder. And these people speak about autocephaly and spirituality! They need cold beer and sturgeon with horse radish rather than autocephaly," Archbishop Ionafan summed up.



He stressed that "the plan of forced (spiritual - IF) separation of Ukraine from Russia is Ukraine's perish." "God forbid for the Yugoslavian scenario to work here," the hierarch stated.



See also under the Mosaic heading.



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Thaw between Constantinople and Moscow, Aleksij II to attend pan-Orthodox Synod

» 07/29/2008 16:28

RUSSIA – TURKEY

by NAT da Polis

Moscow’s self-imposed exclusion ends after eight years. After much controversy, the patriarch of Moscow accepts to co-celebrate with Bartholomew I the festivities for the 1,020 years of Christianity in Ukraine. A joint statement reaffirms the need for dialogue. The Ecumenical Patriarchate demonstrates its role as an agent of unity for the Orthodox world.

Kiev (AsiaNews) – The waters of the Dniepr River seem to have thawed the ice between Constantinople and Moscow following a heated debate in Russia over Bartholomew I’s participation in the celebrations for 1,020 years of Christianity in Ukraine. At the end of the festivities Aleksij II himself announced that he would attend the pan-Orthodox Synod in Constantinople scheduled for October. The Russian Patriarchate has not been present at a pan-Orthodox Synod since 2000.

This is without a doubt the most important result to come out of the celebrations in Kiev, which ended in a joint statement to the press by Bartholomew I and Aleksij II.

Bartholomew insisted that “dialogue is always the most important thing because we are always responsible for Orthodoxy’s unity.”

For his part, Aleksij thanked the ecumenical patriarch several times, saying that he agreed that all problems must be solved through dialogue “without becoming tools of politicians.”

The festivities had begun amid controversy though. Moscow had criticised Bartholomew I’s decision to head the delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Kiev festivities.

Ungracefully Aleksij II’s staff had put pressure on other Orthodox Churches to stay away from the celebrations in Ukraine.

The dispute between Moscow and Constantinople has been going on for some time: first in Rhodes (Greece) in 2007, when Moscow announced it would not take part in the pan-Orthodox Synod in 2008; then in Ravenna when Moscow’s representatives walked out of a conference because they objected to the presence of the Estonian Orthodox Church which Moscow does not recognise.

The confrontation began to ebb when Aleksij II decided to take part in the Kiev festivities.
Since his arrival last Friday Bartholomew made it clear that his trip was not meant to reassert his “supremacy” but only “contribute to the unity of the Ukrainian Church . . . and honour the martyrs of the Holotovol famine of 1932-1933, victims of the atheist fury.”

He even admitted that “the Church as a living organism has problems,” adding that ‘what is important is knowing how to engage in dialogue with a spirit of love.”

During his stay in Ukraine Bartholomew met Metropolitan Vladimir, legate of the Moscow Patriarchate; Filaret, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (independent of Moscow); as well as Card Lubomir Huzar, of the Byzantine (Uniate) Catholic Church.

During a dinner given by Metropolitan Vladimir for the Ecumenical delegation, Bartholomew expressed his regrets that “that at this table the brothers from other Churches from the Land of Ukraine are absent.” He did reaffirm “the strong willingness of the Mother Church of Constantinople to mend rifts among its children.

The archbishop of Albania, a figure well respected in the Orthodox world, noted that often people forget that the survival of Christianity in this vast geographical area after the rise of Islam and the collapse of the ancient Patriarchal centres in Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch was due to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

And probably in what may very well be a first, Turkey’s press followed in great number and with great interest the patriarch’s trip, stressing the role Constantinople played in the Christianisation and the civilisation of the Ukraine.

Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk said that the meeting, especially after the statement by Bartholomew and Aleksij, “breathed new life into the relationship between the two Churches”
One of his close aide confirmed that a solution to the split between the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (which is considered “schismatic” by Moscow) and the one loyal to Moscow might be in a “temporary self-determination which would allow each Church to choose to which Patriarchate it wishes to join.”

This indicates that even within the Russian Orthodox Church there are those who disagree with the authoritarian practices of some of its members.

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Slavic rivals embroiled in church rift

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the titular head of Orthdox Christianity and President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine attend a ceremony at a Kiev's airport on Friday. Yushchenko is seeking Ukrainian independence from the Russian church. (Pool photo by Anatoliy Medzyk/The Associated Press)

As Ukraine and Russian churches drift apart, a sense of loss

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By Anne Barnard Published: July 29, 2008

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MOSCOW: For many Russians, it is bad enough that the president of Ukraine is pushing to join NATO and to eject the Russian Navy from its Black Sea port. But over the weekend, the confrontation over Ukraine's attempts to shrug off Russian influence reached an even more painful emotional pitch - with a new tug of war over history, identity and power.

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine chose the 1,020th anniversary of the advent of Christianity in the Slavic kingdom that predated both Ukraine and Russia - a date that each country claims as a founding event of its nationhood - to issue a public plea for Ukraine's Orthodox Christians to gain independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine chose the 1,020th anniversary of the advent of Christianity in the Slavic kingdom that predated both Ukraine and Russia - a date that each country claims as a founding event of its nationhood - to issue a public plea for Ukraine's Orthodox Christians to gain independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

With Orthodox church notables from around the world looking on, Yushchenko asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the titular spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, to bless the creation of an independent Ukrainian church - "a blessing," he said, "for a dream, for the truth, for a hope, for our state, for Ukraine."

The Ukrainian president - who claims that Russian agents tried to murder him with poison that left him with a pockmarked face - snubbed the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexei II, giving him a businesslike handshake after warmly kissing Bartholomew on both cheeks.

During three days of solemn religious ceremonies, rock concerts and political brinksmanship in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the power struggle was not resolved. Both sides declared victory as Bartholomew stopped short of supporting or rejecting the independence movement, saying only that divisions in the Ukrainian church would have "problematic consequences for Ukraine's future."

But there was insulted pride and inflamed nationalism on both sides, and it was clear that it would be hard to resolve the dispute without causing a schism in the church, heating up ethnic tensions in Ukraine and deepening the division between Russia and the former Soviet republic.

The possibility of a split in the church revealed that behind the geopolitical bluster that the two countries have directed at each other since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 lies an identity crisis and a deep sense of loss.

Many Ukrainians believe the Russian empire and later the Soviet Union robbed them of the chance to develop a national identity, while many Russians feel that Ukraine is now claiming for itself both land and history that belong to them as well.

For Svetlana Dyomena, a nurse who prayed Monday at Yelokhovsky Cathedral in Moscow, the idea of an independent Ukrainian church immediately reminded her of her objections to an independent Ukraine.

"How can Ukraine not be part of Russia?" she said after lighting a candle at the turquoise, golden-domed church, which was the Russian capital's main practicing Orthodox cathedral under Soviet rule. "We have a common faith, a common history."

Dyomena said it was less painful to see countries like Georgia seek to escape Moscow's sphere of influence.

"Georgians - well, they were always from the Caucasus," she said, referring to the restive mountainous region that has fought wars against Russian rulers for centuries. But Ukraine and Russia, she said, have "one language, one religion, even one cuisine."

Ukrainians disagree. Russian was the language of government and education in Ukraine under the Soviet and Russian empires, and Ukrainians struggled to maintain their language. They view the absorption of the Ukrainian state and church into Russia's institutions under Peter the Great as an annexation that was not reversed until 1991.

"How can you live like neighbors when your neighbor says the house you live in is not your own house, but our common house?" asked Bishop Yevstraty, the spokesman for one of two Ukrainian breakaway churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, which the Moscow Patriarchate has declared heretical.

Establishing an independent church is essential for Ukraine to consolidate its national identity and statehood, and it will probably happen eventually, said Alexei Malashenko, an expert on religion and society at the Moscow Carnegie Center.

"But for Russia it is also a tragedy," he said. "I don't know how they are going to agree."
When Ukraine left the Soviet Union in 1991, the new nation took with it much that was dear to Russian hearts.

The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, won by Catherine the Great from the Turks for the Russian empire, was a vacation getaway for generations of Russian nobles and, later, Soviet laborers. Its port, in Sevastopol, is the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Odessa, an important shipping hub now part of Ukraine, is also the source of cultural touchstones from its bawdy jokes to the famous shot of the baby carriage rolling down the steps in the classic Eisenstein film, Battleship Potemkin.

Even historical tragedies are subject to the tug of war: There is a Ukrainian movement to convince the world that the famines that killed millions of Soviets during forced collectivization was a genocide aimed at ethnic Ukrainians - while many Russians object that their ancestors, too, starved after being stripped of their private land.

But the biggest prize is the inheritance of Kievan Rus, the kingdom that Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in the 10th century. Some historians consider the kingdom to be the predecessor of the three east Slavic nations existing today - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - as well as a cultural high point in the medieval history of Europe as a whole.

Speaking in Kiev, the Russian patriarch called it "the mother of Russian cities, a city from where Holy Orthodoxy began to spread through our land."

Moscow church officials, who are close to the Kremlin, linked church unity to political efforts to maintain close ties among Slavic countries.

At a rock concert organized by the Moscow patriarchate, the popular rock band DDT performed alongside Metropolitan Kirill, a Moscow church spokesman who declared in a kind of ecclesiastical rap: "Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - That is Holy Rus!"

There is also division within Ukraine itself over the issue.

The idea of church independence is less popular in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking, pro-Russian industrialized south and east than in the Ukrainian-speaking, Western-leaning part of the country west of the Dniepr River.

Alexei II canceled a planned trip to Donetsk, a pro-Russian city, citing health reasons, but was widely seen to be either trying to avoid stirring up conflict by rallying his supporters, or to be leaving early because the Ukrainian president did not show him enough respect.

At Yelokhovsky Sobor, another worshipper, Aleftina Prosvirnikova, 65, declared that all the problems had started in Western Ukraine.

"The south and east - that's the normal, Russian Ukraine," she said.

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Constantinople's jurisdiction over Ukrainian Orthodoxy would deepen religious split in Ukraine - cleric

29 July 2008, 10:14



Kiev, July 29, Interfax - The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) doubts that the possible introduction of parallel jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine is capable of re-uniting Ukrainian Orthodoxy.



"We think that this model will not work because instead of promoting church unity, the two jurisdictions will in fact remain parallel for a long time, deepening the split in the Ukrainian society," head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Church Archimandrite Kirill (Hovorun) told reporters in Kiev.



The prospect of creating a single Church in Ukraine under two parallel jurisdictions is highly unlikely, he said.



As for the possible unification on the basis of the secessionist "Kiev Patriarchate" and other secessionist structures, that is even less probable, Father Kirill said.



As soon as there emerged an opportunity for the "Kiev Patriarchate" to come under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, it immediately relinquished its struggle for the status of the only canonical autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the metropolitan said.



"The idea of uniting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the basis of the "Kiev Patriarchate" or unrecognized jurisdictions has suffered a fiasco," he said.



In his opinion, the Ukrainian Orthodoxy can only be united "on the basis of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church - [which is] the most numerous and enjoys the widest support worldwide," Metropolitan Kirill said.



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Russian Orthodox Church Will Not Tolerate "Revenge" of Ukrainian “Schismatics”

29.07.2008, [20:01] // Inter-Christian relations //

Kyiv-Moscow— “Of course such attempts will be made,” said Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kyrill (Hundyaev), during the 29 July press-conference in Moscow. This information was reported by “Ukrajinska Pravda” with reference from “Interfacs-Ukraina.”

“I do not have a good-natured, optimistic view of the future. We do not have the grounds for such good-natured optimism. But our assignment consists of resisting all the dangers appearing in our faith, from our convictions and relying on help from God,” he added.

Speaking about the possibility of changing the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the metropolitan mentioned that this would not be allowed.

“A lot of pressure has been made and continues to be made on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Certain steps to change the canonical status are being requested of the Church,” said the Metropolitan Kyrill.

He mentioned that on 23 July at the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves was a large session of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in which Metropolitan Volodymyr proposed to the hierarchs to discuss the possibility of changing the canonical status of the Church.

“Everyone present, except for one hierarch, spoke in support for the preservation of unity of our church, and declared that they will not allow any change in the canonical status,” stated the Metropolitan.

In his words, this idea was demonstrated by Ukrainians who met with Patriarch Alexis II.

“I saw thousands of Orthodox people who greeted the patriarch in a matter that I have never seen before. Someone said that it reminded them of a meeting with liberators, so much such happiness was found the Ukrainians,” said Metropolitan Kyrill.

He added that this reaction was a “colossal support of this plain truth, which was once said by a reverend and godly person: Russia – Ukraine – Belarus are the holy Rus’.”

Kyrill also declared that the church schism “can only be overcome by Church methods.” “No political schemes will work. Interference by politicians will create more divisions. Nothing good will come from this,” said the Metropolitan.

“I do not think that this will settle right away. I do not think that our Church awaits easy times in Ukraine. Maybe someone will want to take revenge for what happened. But I would like to return to all of these passionate hotheads. We have to understand one simple thing: the Church exists by its own inner logic for 2000 years. And this is the one thing missing in our time,” he added.

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Russian patriarch battles independent Orthodox church in Ukraine

The spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, Patriarch Bartholomew, left, and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, during a religious service in Kiev on Sunday.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized the unity of the Slavic Orthodoxies on Sunday during a rare liturgy conducted jointly by the patriarch of the Greek-Orthodox church in İstanbul in the face of increasingly fierce attempts by the Ukrainian government to establish an independent national church.

Russian Patriarch Alexy II and Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the Greek-Orthodox Church of Fener-İstanbul, on Sunday marked 1,020 years since the conversion of Kiev in a liturgy also attended by President Victor Yushchenko.

Bartholomew arrived in Kiev on Friday to join the celebrations, seen by Ukrainian officials as an opportunity to assert the independence of their local church from Russia, a policy Ukraine has been seeking since the 2004 Orange Revolution that moved the country away from Moscow and closer to the West.

However Russian Patriarch Alexy II, who is paying his first visit to Ukraine in 10 years, is fighting to retain influence over the predominantly Orthodox country of 46 million. Alexy II arrived in Kiev on Saturday for the first time in 11 years for yesterday’s ceremony, conducted with the İstanbul church for the first time in eight years.

Ankara sees Patriarch Bartholomew as the leader of the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey, although the world Orthodox community considers him their ecumenical spiritual leader.

Bartholomew is called the “first among equals” among Orthodox leaders, but wields little real power over the world’s more than 250 million Orthodox souls. That power rests with the patriarchs of the various self-governing churches, the largest of which is the Russian Orthodox Church of Patriarch Alexy II.

Thousands of Ukrainian believers gathered in the early morning hours on Sunday in front of the monument of Vladimir the Great, under whose reign the region converted to Christianity in 988, to attend the liturgy. The event follows a liturgy in the St. Sophia Cathedral in the center of the city on Saturday during which Yushchenko publicly expressed his confidence that an “autonomous national church will see the light in Ukraine as an historic truth,” in front of thousands of people.

Yesterday’s liturgy was conducted in Greek and Russian and followed a restrained speech from Kiev Patriarch Vladimir, who emphasized Vladimir the Great’s role in the baptism of Ukraine. He also expressed “pain” and “sorrow” over the schism created by two breakaway churches unrecognized both by Moscow and Bartholomew, saying they prayed for unity and expressing his confidence that peace and understanding would eventually prevail over current disputes.

Patriarch Bartholomew described in detail in his speech the role of the Orthodox Church in İstanbul in the Christianization of Kiev, including the Christianization of Olga of Kiev, the first ruler of the medieval state who converted to Christianity, and hundreds of missionaries sent by his church to Kiev. He said this “great even” was made possible by the church in İstanbul, the mother of all Orthodox churches in the world. He noted that “the Kiev Metropolite was established by Constantinople, just like the St. Sophia Cathedral,” adding that it was named after the same saint as the first great church in İstanbul.

“We always remember the efforts of the church of Constantinople as a source of our baptism and we are grateful for that,” said Alexy II in his speech after Bartholomew. “However the Russian Church had to split from Constantinople due to historical conditions and events,” he said, adding it had become the church maintaining unity of the Slavic Orthodox populations.

Archimandrite Cyril of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who responded to journalists’ questions after the liturgy said the “problems between the churches are very special,” noting also that Sunday’s liturgy was a token of the church’s unity.

He said there were efforts to “heal” the current division, saying Bartholomew’s visit upon the invitation of President Yushchenko was indicative of the reconciliation efforts.

In response to a question on what could be a concrete solution for reconciliation, Archimandrite Cyril said a model was yet to be established but that a structure under the ecumenical church or establishing Ukraine as an independent church were options that had not been ruled out. He said there would be “one single model of reconciliation that is the common voice of the churches.”

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Moscow, Kiev both claim victory in Ukraine church dispute

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The Associated Press Published: July 28, 2008

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KIEV, Ukraine: Moscow and Kiev both are claiming victory in a dispute creating an independent Ukrainian Orthodox church — which Russia fiercely opposes — after a weekend visit by the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.



Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is hoping to win recognition of the local church's independence from Moscow as part of his drive to shed centuries-long Russian influence. The Russian Orthodox Church resists losing control over this predominantly Orthodox country of 46 million.





Yushchenko said on his Web site that the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox believers has voiced support for the creation of a local church, independent of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church.



"I am glad that the Patriarch is backing the aspiration of the Ukrainian people to have its own national local church," Yushchenko said in a statement. "Such aspirations are in line to all the principles of a national, state and of course church life."


Yushchenko made the statement Sunday at the end of a three-day visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who came to Kiev to attend massive celebrations marking the 1020 anniversary of Ukraine's and Russia's conversion to Christianity.





But Mikhail Prokopenko, a spokesman for the Moscow-based Russian church, disputed Yushchenko's claim. He told The Associated Press on Monday that a meeting between Russian Patriarch Alexy II and Bartholomew confirmed that Constantinople recognizes Moscow's supremacy over the Ukrainian church.



Prokopenko also said that Bartholomew also will not recognize a breakaway church in Ukraine that has proclaimed its independence and whose leader has been excommunicated by Alexy.
Bartholomew's office declined immediate comment.



Experts say the Ukrainian church likely will get independence eventually, like churches in other countries will sizable Orthodox populations. But an abrupt decision on this could lead to a deep split between Constantinople and the Russian church, the biggest Orthodox church in the world, which claims 95 million believers out of the world's 250 million Orthodox.





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Orthodox Church calls for an end to religous row

27/07 14:05 CET



The two most powerful figures in the Orthodox Church have celebrated mass together in Kiev, amid deep divisions within the Church. Orthodox Patriarch Bortholomew I has seen a growing religious dispute between the Russian church and Ukraine which wants its own independent branch.


The Russian Patriarch Alexiy II dismisses that as causing a schism within the church, and Moscow has accused Ukrainian leaders of interfering in religious affairs. But President Viktor Yushchenko is an ardent believer, and sees the creation of a Ukrainian Orthodox church as vital to the building of a national identity.


Bartholomew has called for unity but, unlike the Pope, he has little but moral authority and cannot impose his will on national churches.



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Russian Patriarch urges Orthodox Church unity

16:2327/ 07/ 2008

KIEV, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Orthodox Church unity under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate is no obstacle to the sovereignty of countries that are successors to Kievan Rus, Russian Patriarch Alexy II said on Sunday.

Alexy II made this statement following an appeal by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to the patriarch of Constantinople on Saturday to give his blessing to the country's plans for a national church independent of Russian Orthodoxy.

"The Russian Orthodox unity cannot hinder a full-fledged life of the sovereign states that are successors to Kievan Rus. Our church respects their sovereignty and is interested in the strengthening and prosperity of their peoples," Alexy II said after a divine liturgy served in the Ukrainian capital to mark the 1,020th anniversary of the adoption of Orthodox Christianity in Kievan Rus.

A rival Ukrainian church was formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union. However, only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchy, is recognized in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Kiev Patriarchy officials have recently stepped up contacts with the Church of Constantinople, also known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, seeking "to return Ukraine to the Mother Church." The drive has been actively backed by President Yushchenko and the country's other top officials against a backdrop of tensions in relations with Russia.

The Christianization of Kiev dates from late 988, when Prince Vladimir the Great was baptized at Chersonesos, in the Crimea. He then baptized his family and people in Kiev and destroyed wooden statues of Slavic pagan gods.

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Ukraine and Russia Face Off Over Christian Orthodoxy

Priests carry a religious relic after a liturgy in Kyiv, 27 Jul 2008








By Emma Stickgold

Moscow27

July 2008


Stickgold report - Download (MP3)

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Top Orthodox Christian leaders gathered in Ukraine's capital this week to mark the 1,020th anniversary of the region's conversion to Christianity. But Russian leaders are viewing the festivities as a politically motivated demonstration of a growing schism between the Ukrainian and Russian churches. As Emma Stickgold reports for the VOA from Moscow, apparent political overtones threatened to cast a pall over the elaborate religious ceremonies.

routine celebration of Christianity's rich history in the region, as the haunting melodies of traditional Christian chants mixed with scent of incense sent swirling by Orthodox clergy in their customary gold vestments.

But numerous comments and actions preceding the solemn liturgy were viewed by many in Moscow as a clear sign that Ukraine is trying to consolidate its three Orthodox churches into one united church that is no longer under Russian influence.

Orthodox believers in Ukraine and Russia trace their faith to Kyivan Rus, an ancient state that ruled Ukraine and parts of today's Russia, and which adopted Christianity in 988. Over the centuries, Ukrainians and Russians developed separate ethnic identities and languages.

During the Soviet era, the Orthodox patriarch in Moscow had control over Ukraine's Orthodox churches. Many of them continue to recognize the Moscow patriarch, but other Ukrainians are seeking recognition of their own church leader in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ruffled some feathers Saturday when he asked Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader for about 250 million people worldwide, to bless the creation of a Ukrainian church that would be independent of Russia.

Mr. Yushchenko says he considers Patriarch Bartholomew's visit as recognition of the achievements of Ukrainian Christians and the Ukrainian Church.

The Russian and Ukrainian churches both fall under the purview of the Orthodox Christian church and Patriarch Bartholomew, who arrived last week in Kyiv.

Bartholomew says he came to celebrate a joint mass in favor of unifying all Orthodox believers in Ukraine into one church.

Though his remarks were non-committal, they were seen by many in Ukraine and Russia as supportive of the bid to move away from Russia's jurisdiction. Russian Orthodox leaders downplayed the perceived backing of an independent Ukrainian church.

But President Yushchenko's role in this weekend's ceremonies gave it a political charge that made Moscow uneasy, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials calling recent Ukrainian actions disrespectful towards Russian Orthodox leaders.

The reaction underscored recent political tensions that have emerged surrounding Ukraine's bid to join NATO against Moscow's wishes, and other brewing skirmishes such as the fate of the Russian naval base in Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

Russia Profile magazine editor Andrei Zolotov, whose area of specialty is the Orthodox Church, told VOA that the politicization of this weekends' event was in no way subtle, and that there may be repercussions if the church's fate remains in the political arena.

"So, sooner or later, these issues have to be resolved and the unification of the orthodoxies in Ukraine is very necessary and this is a very, kind of the whole situation is a very painful wound on the body of the Orthodox Church worldwide, but of course the attempt to push these measures - to have an excessive kind of pressure from the government to do this can result not in healing this wound, but in actually exacerbating the problem," said Andrei Zolotov.

But Patriarch Bartholomew said the unity of the church transcends any political or religious objective.

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