UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate’s Synod Sees No Obstacles in Preparing Dialogue with UOC-Moscow Patriarchate

KYIV — During the session of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate on December 13, 2009, its participants heard a report of its head Patriarch Filaret and of Metropolitan Dymytrii of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Boryspil, the head of the working team responsible for the preparation of the dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), about the status of relations between the two churches.  The UOC-KP sees no obstacles in the process of preparing the dialogue with the UOC-MP and calls the faithful to “assist in all ways to establish peaceful relations between the believers of the two Churches.” RISU’s Ukrainian-language web site posted this story on December 14, 2009.

UOC-KP representatives reminded once again that “they appreciate and continue to see the possibility of considering all constructive proposals of the mother church of Constantinople, which would lead to the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.”

As for the relations with the Russian Federation, the position of the UOC-KP is unchanged: retaining and strengthening the relations between the two states “is possible only on the basis of mutual respect for the sovereignty, state independence, and national and cultural specificities of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”