The visit has proven to be highly politicized, which should surprise no one. To one extreme the Patriarch is seen as a beneficent leader visiting his flock and strengthening the bond he has with the Ukrainian faithful. The other extreme sees him as an unwelcome dictator who wants to subordinate the Ukrainian people and maintain unwanted control (the word "yoke" is often used) over the Church in Ukraine and increase Moscow's political control. There are just too many articles being published to get every point and counter-point in.
And also...(ZIK) - An expert on religion, Andrij Yurash, said to ZIK July 27 the visit to Ukraine of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kiril has a political dimension which is part of the ideology pursued both by Kiril and the Russian regime. The essence of this ideology is that, insofar as Ukraine cannot be brought to the Russian fold politically, at least a spiritual noose should be tied.
“Moscow believes the Russian church should become the main cementing factor of the so-called Eastern Orthodox unity and Orthodox civilization. Kiril’s visit is a manifestation of this political concept. All the earlier statements that Patriarch Kiril’s visit is beyond politics are absolutely hypocritical, and this is understood both in Moscow and in Kyiv,”Yurash maintains.
That Moscow tries to give the visit a high profile is Russia’s reaction to the attempts by Ukraine Orthodox to put their church on the Ukrainian footing, something which the last several conventions of Ukrainian archbishops have reaffirmed.Moscow cannot go on sitting on its hands while the situation in Ukraine is getting out of its control and pro-Ukrainian feeling among the Ukrainian clergy becoming stronger, the expert notes.
There may be two opposing results of Kiril’s visit to Ukraine, Yurash believes. On the one hand, his visit will strengthen pro-Moscow believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which has special relations with Moscow. The telling examples of such patronage is the appointment of Donetsk Metropolitan Ilarion to the board of the ROC, open support of Odesa Metropolitan Agafangel, flirtations with some of UOC prominent bishops and unwillingness to accept the growing independence of UOC (Kyiv Patriarchate).
On the other hand, Kiril’s visit may spur pro-Ukrainian clergy within the UOC into assessing more realistically their future and see for themselves that Moscow will never recognize the autonomy of the UOC.
Donetsk, July 30 (Interfax) - Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church bowed low to all Ukrainians who remained faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate in years of church division.
"I turn to you, who with power of faith preserved the Church unity here in Ukraine. I bow to all of you, please, accept my patriarchal "thank you" from the whole Russian Orthodox Church for your courageous standing in faith, for your faithfulness to the Lord and Savior!" the Patriarch said on Thursday after Divine Liturgy in the Svyatogorsk Laura in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine and then bowed low to all church people.He had to make a pause in his sermon as thousands of people who came to the Laura started exclaiming, "Kirill is our Patriarch!"
Addressing the flock, he further said that he believed "in recovery of people, in recovery of national life in Ukraine" and promised "as a Patriarch, of Ukraine as well," to spare no effort "to reunite people, to remove political and national contradictions, so that one Church of Christ, Church-martyr and confessor, who was faithful to Christ even to death and shared the destiny of Her people, could regain power and could motherly embrace all her faithful children."
The Church Primate stressed that he turned his word "filled with love" not only to Orthodox believers of Donbass, but to all "brother and sisters who are in division."
"We will pray for you, even if you don't want this prayer, we will kneel down and ask God to extend His mercy to Ukraine and unite the Church and the people," Patriarch Kirill said.
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