UOC-MP Denies Political Motives of Visit of Patriarch Kirill

The main aim of the visit of Patriarch Kirill is to venerate the shrines of the Kyivan Rus, reported the head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC-MP, Protopriest Heorhii Kovalenko, at an internet press conference of the Observer. 

“Actually, the main aim of the visit is to communicate with believers, hold services, and venerate the shrines of Kyivan Rus,” he said.

Kovalenko noted that he did not notice an increase of confrontation in the Ukrainian society after the previous visits of Kirill to Ukraine but rather the opposite – an increase of attention to the church.

Commenting on the visit of the State Southern Machine Building Plant in Dnipropetrovsk, Kovalenko assured that Kirill is going there not to get acquainted with the manufacturing but to view of the construction of a church at the plant.

According to Kovalenko, 90% of the program will be dedicated to spiritual events.