Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople expressed his wish that the Ukrainian Churches not recognized by world Orthodoxy join the canonical Orthodox Church.
"Let them not hesitate but join the canonical Orthodox Church, which is a ship of salvation," Patriarch Bartholomew said in an interview to Vesti 24 TV, which was recorded Sunday in the Constantinovsky Palace in Strelna near St. Petersburg.
He expressed to Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate that he wishes in his lifetime to see the schism overcome.
Commenting on the current standpoint of the Constantinople Patriarchate on the Ukrainian schism Patriarch Bartholomew said "Our Church does everything with due respect to the existing canonical order [in Ukraine]."
The patriarch also expressed willingness of his church to pray for both "the Russian and Ukrainian people."