Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew today (May 31, 2010) urged Ukrainian dissenters to repent and join the canonic Orthodox Church, according to the Interfax-Religion website.
He noted that speaking with Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine, he wished him that "he be honored by God to see the solution to this problem while alive, and that the schism ceased to exist."
Patriarch Bartholomew expressed a willingness of his Church to pray both for "Russian and Ukrainian people."
Although Ukraine is a predominantly Orthodox nation, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is divided into a Moscow Patriarchy and an independent Kiev Patriarchy, which declared its independence from Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Patriarch Bartholomew's call for Ukraine dissenters to join the Canonic Orthodox Church follows his week-long visit in Russia with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Patriarch Kirill had visited Ukraine in 2009, at which time he urged the independent Kiev Patriarchy to relinquish its independence and unite with the Moscow Patriarchy. It appears obvious that the Kiev Patriarchy has no intention whatsoever of giving up its independence.
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