29.07.2008, [19:56] // UOC-KP // RISU.ORG.UA
Kyiv— The official press-release of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), for the occasion of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus, published on 28 July, declares that “at this time, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) appeals to the KP mainly with ultimatums. The Mother-Church, the Constantinople Patriarchate, can propose a calculated and historically fair model for progress… two assignments: renewing Church unity in Ukraine and recognizing the national status of the Ukrainian Church.” In the declaration, the UOC-KP underlines that the goal is to “unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy and to recognize the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
“For the sake of the achievement of this goal, our Church is ready to make concessions, and rather considerable ones, but only for the interests of the future of the Ukrainian Church and all of Orthodoxy. We believe that our position will be accepted by all with understanding,” stresses the release.
The UOC-KP thanked the Ukrainian state and especially the President for the support of the Church initiatives for the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus. In the message it was also stated that “the Kyivan Patriarchate also highly values the declarations by Patriarch Bartholomew that the Constantinople Church will remain the Mother-Church for the Ukrainian Church, and the reference to the unpleasant fact about the annexation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Church by the Russian Tsar Peter I.”
The Kyivan Patriarchate press-center informs that the UOC-KP believes that “the visit of the head of the Mother-Church and his personal acquaintance with Ukraine will revive the unification processes of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.” Furthermore, the KP states that “the goal of these processes is the unification of the Ukrainian Church and the recognition of it as national and autocephalous.”
“On the eve of the celebration, the Moscow Patriarchate began to threaten the planned events if hierarchs of the Kyivan Patriarchate plan to attend. In such a state, the Moscow Patriarchate sent letters to the heads of the National Churches asking them to ignore the invitations by the President of Ukraine to come to Kyiv,” continues the message of the UOC-KP. It is also says that the decision to not partake in the official events on the level of the hierarchs of the UOC-KP was to “not place our state in a difficult situation,” “but the faithful and the clergy of the Kyivan Patriarchate” as the message declares, “composed more that three-fourths of those on the St. Sophia Square who stood in the rain to greet the Constantinople Patriarchate and receive his blessing.”
The UOC-KP does not believe that “the recognition of the canonical status of the hierarchy and clergy by another Church is the principle goal of any inter-Church meeting or understanding.” “If our hierarchs and clergy worried solely about the canonical status, then they would never have left the body of the Moscow Patriarchate, and would now be hierarchs and priests of this Church,” says the dispatch.
Summing up the celebratory events for the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus, the release mentions that “the Kyivan Patriarchate hopes that the celebratory events, declarations, and public addresses will have its own continuation and will contribute to the unity and recognition of the National Ukrainian Church.”