“Waiting on the Patriarch”
“Waiting on the Patriarch”: speakers of the UOC told of their expectations and anticipations at the briefing at the press-center of “Ukrinform”
At the press-center of “Ukrinform” a small briefing was held on July 24, with participation of the clergymen of the UOC, immediately involved in preparation and organization of the visit of Patriarch Kirill to Ukraine. The speakers were the Press-secretary for Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine archpriest George Kovalenko, Chair of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC archimandrite Kirill Hovorun, archpriest Mykolai Danylevych and teacher of Kyiv Theological Academy Volodymyr Burega.
The action was named: “Waiting on the Patriarch: expectations and anticipations”, therefore the clergymen spoke more about expectations, and the journalists asked about anticipations. As it turned out, the responsible persons from the UOC hope that this visit will give an impulse to reunification processes in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and will serve reunion of the faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Church. And they apprehend that some political forces and radical movements use this visit to solve their own circumpolitical and pre-election problems. The representatives of the UOC called all the quarters of the society to tolerance and mutual respect, and moderation, so that there were no provocations and deplorable incidents.
The journalists present in “Ukrinform” were interested about the possibility of meeting of Patriarch Kirill with representatives of the UAOC, the UOC-KP and other Christian confessions presented in Ukraine. Taking into account the extremely busy program of Patriarch Kirill’s stay in Ukraine, it is difficult to speak about probability of the contacts of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church with other ecclesial bodies in Ukraine.
Answering the question of the journalist from France Press, Archimandrite Kirill Hovorununderscored that in case of meeting with administration of the UOC-KP it would not be Philaret Denisenko. According to him, “The visit will prompt the format of contact, if there is such a contact.”
Archpriest George Kovalenko expressed hope that the commentaries and actions to accompany the patriarch Kirill’s stay in Ukraine will prove to the whole world the maturity of Ukrainian democracy, and on the part of the UOC the best efforts will be applied to provide necessary informational coverage of this high-profile event.
