CWNews.com - "The great desire of the Ukrainian people is to live in a single national apostolic Church," Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has told the visiting Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill. The president's statement addressed the fractures within the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The Moscow patriarchate recognizes only one of three competing groups, and claims that group (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church- Moscow patriarchate) is the sole legitimate representative of the country's Orthodox faithful. Yushchenko's statement appears to favor the rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church- Kiev patriarchate, which broke from Moscow in the 1990s to establish an independent national body. Supporters of the Moscow-backed group have frequently complained that Yushchenko shows undue preference for the Kiev patriarchate.
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