Top State Leadership and Reps of UOC-Moscow Patriarchate Pray for Ukrainian State on St. Volodymyr's Hill

Today, on December 23, on St. Volodymyr’s Hill, the traditional thanksgiving prayer service was held on the occasion of the end of the year. The hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the leaders of the state, President Viktor Yanukovych, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and other top officials prayed together.

The joint prayer meetings of the representatives of the authorities and the UOC-MP have already become a tradition, and this year the event is conducted with the blessing of Metropolitan Volodymyr, who is in hospital.

The participants prayed in front of the relics of St. Volodymyr that God should bless the year 2012.

After the prayer service, Metropolitan Ahafangel (Savvin) of Odesa and Izmail listed positive things, which, according to him, Ukraine received under the leadership of President Yanukovych:“Thanks to the wise and consistent policy of the President, Ukraine successfully fulfills its mission both in domestic and foreign policies. Everything is being done to improve the economy, establish friendship between Ukraine and Russia, to ensure that the Ukrainian nation should feel free. Ukraine is in safe hands,” stressed Metropolitan Ahafangel in his address.