Russian Church Rep Calls Ukraine’s Future President Not to Interfere in Church Affairs

MOSCOW — Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church call the future president of Ukraine not to interfere in the internal church situation. “The best thing the future Ukrainian president, whoever it may be, can do is not interfere in the church situation,” said Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, on January 12, 2010, at a press conference in Moscow, reports the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.

The hierarch also reminded that “the national Ukrainian church, which is persistently called by President Yushchenko to be established, is exactly the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).”