The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Tuesday urged a breakaway group in Ukraine to reunite with the powerful Moscow patriarchate, reaffirming his rejection of allowing an independent church in Kiev.
After leading prayers marking the 1,021st anniversary of the Slavic world’s conversion to Christianity, Patriarch Kirill exhorted the worshippers of the breakaway church to “return to the father’s house and unite with us.”
“Not all our of brothers of the same faith share this holiday today,” Kirill said. “Some find themselves outside the church’s saving fence, outside its precious unity.”
Ukraine’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko is leading a campaign to win recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, which broke away from the Moscow patriarchate in the 1990s, as a legitimate independent church which would not answer to Moscow.
He has sought backing from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the word’s 250 million Orthodox believers, but has not gotten a clear response.
The Moscow Patriarchate and Kremlin leaders strongly oppose those efforts, seeking to retain religious and political influence over the ex-Soviet republic of 46 million which seeks integration into the West.
Kirill, who took over the Russian Orthodox Church earlier this year and is seen as more reform-oriented than his predecessor Alexy II, met with Yushchenko on Monday.
Yushchenko again called for forming a self-governing church in Ukraine, but Kirill was quick to dismiss that idea, saying that the dominant, Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox church is the only church here.
