On February 24, 2010, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in Kyiv.
KYIV – On February 24, 2010, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in Kyiv. At the Boryspil airport he was met by Metropolitan Volodymyr, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), permanent members of the Holy Synod of the UOC, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the national deputy of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, reports the web site of the UOC-MP.
The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was accompanied by the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokalamsk.
The patriarch answered the journalists’ questions.
On the eve of the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kyiv Cave, the Patriarch will pray at the Church of Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Kyiv Cave Monastery and will visit the caves to bow to the relics of the Venerable Fathers.
According to the report, on the commemoration of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God on February 25 at the (Refectory) Church of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in concelebration with Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate will perform the prayer service during which he will pray for Ukraine and its people. Following the prayer service, the patriarch in concelebration with the primate of the UOC-MP and the permanent members of the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP will celebrate the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.
In the course of the visit, a meeting with the president-elect of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych is planned.
According to the report, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church asks not to politicize the visit of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to Ukraine and to refrain from radical and emotional evaluations in the days of Lent, concentrating on prayer and the search for mutual understanding and brotherly love between people.