Posted by George Patsourakos
on 7/28/2009, 1:06 am
On July 27, 2009, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia arrived in Kiev, according to the CNN website.
The Russian cleric started his 10-day visit to Ukraine by conducting a service at the monument to Prince Vladimir the Baptizer at Vladimirskaya Gorka Park in Kiev.
After the service, Patriarch Kirill emphasized that it is imperative for both Russians and Ukrainians to be spiritually united in faith, saying this unity "is our strength, the basis of our resistance to all temptations and dividedness of the world."
It was Prince Vladimir whose undertaking led to the spread of the Orthodox faith on the territories that include present-day Russia and Ukraine.
"Kiev is our common Jerusalem, and it is Kiev that the Russian Orthodox faith came from," Patriarch Kirill said.
Like Russia, Ukraine is a predominantly Orthodox country; however, when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the Ukrainian Church broke away from the Russian Church -- a by-product of Ukraine's new political independence -- and this schism has sometimes resulted in friction between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox hierarchs.
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