Patriarch Kirill expresses hope for overcoming church schism in Ukraine

Welcoming the high guest, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said, "I hope that by God’s mercy at some point we will succeed in overcoming all these divisions. And I was glad to hear a testimony that the Ukrainian episcopate wish to overcome these divisions. There is love in their hearts for those who have fallen away, and they are certainly suffering together with all from these divisions."

Pat. Kirill stressed that the Council revealed the strong unity of the Church. In spite of difficult processes taking place in Ukraine, the episcopate show great courage, "because they understand that what they defend is the unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church."

At the final session of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness His Holiness cordially thanked the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches and representatives of those Churches for taking part in the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and the celebrations: ‘We pray to the Lord, beseeching Him to preserve all our Churches in unity, so that, notwithstanding sometimes very difficult and controversial circumstances, the plenitude of the Church might be still aware of the necessity to preserve, as their dearest treasure, the ecclesiastical unity. In unity is our strength, and through unity we express solidarity with all those suffering, in one Body of the Church of Christ."

The head of the UOC-KP Filaret, who fell into schism and in 1992 founded his Patriarchate, still not recognized by World Orthodoxy, sent a letter of November 16 to Patriarch Kirill and the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church with a proposal to overcome the schism.

As the head of the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church for Relations with the Society and the Media Vladimir Legoida said earlier, the Moscow Patriarchate is ready for dialogue. To overcome the schism, the Russian Orthodox Church set up a special commission with the participation of the Ukrainian clergy.

Read also