Uniate Leader in Ukraine Calls for "Primitive Unity" with Three Ukrainian Orthodox Branches

The leader of the Uniates in Ukraine, Patriarch Lubomir Husar, has called for the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church, as well as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into one local Church of the country, Interfax-Religion website reports today.

"We have a desire to see these four branches back to the primitive unity. But this unity will not be the same as in the times of Prince Vladimir," said the head of the Ukrainian Uniate Church at a press conference in Kiev on December 15, 2009. (A Uniate Church is an Eastern Christian Church that acknowledges the supremacy of the pope, but retains its own distinctive liturgy.)

In the view of Patriarch Husar, the Patriarch who will head one Ukrainian Church could belong to any of the four branches, and the spiritual center of the united Church will be the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev.

There has been no response to the Uniate Patriarch's desire for unity from any of the three branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.