On 15 May, 2012, in the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, an all-Ukrainian scholarly theological and historic conference on the 1150th anniversary of establishment of the Kyivan Metropolitanate and the Baptism of the Kyivan state under Prince Askold was held.
The conference was attended by secular scholars, teachers of educational institutions, clergymen and bishops of the UOC-KP. The event was led by Patriarch Filaret.
Introductory addresses were made by Ukrainian deputy Petro Yushchenko and Deputy Head of the Holosiiv District State Administartion of the city of Kyiv, Head of the Society of Prince Askold’s Memory, Pavlo Zhuk. A greeting address was given by the head of the presidium of the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada, professor at St. Andrew’s Collegium in Winnipeg, Protopresbyter Stepan Yarmus.
The head of the Synodal Committee on the Canonization of Saints, Metropolitan Dymytrii (Rudiuk) of Lviv and Sokal of UOC-KP, told the audience that the committee will study the question of the possibility of canonizing the first Kyiv prince Askold-Mykolai as “a blessed martyr for the Orthodox faith” who was killed by pagans 1,130 years ago on the basis of the results of the conferences.
The participants of the conference expressed a wish that events like this should be conducted by the two largest Ukrainian churches, the UOC-KP and the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate.