Ukrainian Parliament's Speaker says that aggressive position of Patriarch Kirill hinders dialogue between Orthodox Churches

The head of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Volodymyr Lytvyn, stated that Church hierarchs, particularly, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, are responsible for the existing divide of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

The head of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Volodymyr Lytvyn, stated that church hierarchs, particularly, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, are responsible for the existing divide in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, reported Religion in Ukraine.

Lytvyn said this in an interview to Echo of Moscow radio as he talked about the lack of dialogue between the different parts of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

“There are consultations between the denominations, but there is no dialogue. One should note that it is not happening particularly due to the active, aggressive position of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in this regard. And it seems to me that this problem is fully the responsibility of the church hierarchs. And the faithful. For if they do not reach understanding, we will have no result,” stated Lytvyn on the radio program about the issue of the church divide in Ukraine.

The Speaker of the Parliament also spoke about the Russian language. In his opinion, there is no need to grant it the status of the second state language in Ukraine. Let us remind that the concept of the “Russian World” of Patriarch Kirill envisages the dominant role of the Russian language in the post-Soviet space.