First Easter Service in Ukraine to Be Broadcast from Moscow
For the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, the Ukrainian state television will broadcast a service from the Moscow Church of Christ the Saviour for an hour. The program of Easter services to be broadcast shows clear domination of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Vice Premier of the Ukrainian PR-League, Oleg Medvedev, noted in his blog.
Later, the state channel will broadcast part of the services from churches of 3 other denominations for 20 minutes from each one. After that, all the time until 2 a.m. is given to the Kyiv Cave Monastery, that is, to the Moscow Patriarchate. A service in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate will be broadcast as late as at 4 a.m.
“On Sunday morning, Benkendorf assigned the worst time, after noon to the UOC-KP. The best time was assigned again to the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate,” wrote Oleg Medvedev.
On Saturday, the First Channel will broadcast an interview with Patriarch Kirill and a film about the head of UOC-MP, Volodymyr. On Sunday, the film will be broadcast again and one also will be able to watch it on Era. On Easter, the Era Channel will also broadcast the interview with Kirill, which is to be broadcasted by the 1st Channel first. Oleg Medvedev noted that neither Patriarch Filaret nor Patriarch Sviatoslav is given such attention.
