KIEV, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is on a 10-day tour of Ukraine, called on Tuesday for the reunification of Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Ukraine is a predominantly Orthodox country, but the Orthodox Church in the ex-Soviet state split in the 1990s. The larger branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, which has 10,000 parishes in the country, is loyal to the Moscow Patriarchy.
President Viktor Yushchenko and other top officials have backed independence from Moscow for the unrecognized Orthodox Church under the Kiev Patriarchate against the backdrop of tensions in ties with Russia.
Speaking after a church service devoted to Prince Vladimir, who baptized medieval Rus 1,021 years ago, Patriarch Kirill invited clergy and believers to pray for those who split, so that they may "abandon their sinful illusions and join us joyfully and with pure hearts."
The patriarch led an open air service in the Kiev Laura, the birthplace of Russian Orthodoxy, with thousands of believers attending and flocking to the walls of the cathedral.
A group of Ukrainian nationalists outside the monastery cried out protests against the visit through loudspeakers, yelling "Out with the Moscow colonialist priest!"
Responding to the protests after the service, Kirill said "a quiet voice of truth is stronger than the voice of spite...even amplified through modern electronic devices."
"Our unity is not political or imperial, our unity is in Christ the Savior," Kirill said in the laura, pledging further efforts to pursue church unity to applause and blessings from those attending.
The leader of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church accused the Russian patriarch on Monday of pursuing a "political project" to deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty.
"He arrived to promote a political project of integrating Ukraine into Russia, to promote unity under the Kremlin leadership, from which Ukraine, by God's blessing and on people's will, got rid in 1991," said self-proclaimed Patriarch Filaret said.
Ukrainian Orthodoxy has split in three with Ukraine's Moscow Patriarchate becoming a self-governing but subservient part of the Russian Orthodox Church. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, is not recognized in Eastern Orthodoxy. The third church, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, originally formed in 1920s, and operates almost exclusively in the western part of the country.
Ukraine's largest opposition party leader, Viktor Yanukovych, said on Tuesday that Patriarch Kirill's visit would also promote national unity in the country.
"I believe this is an extremely important visit that will unify the Ukrainian people, consolidate Orthodoxy. I believe that new, good times are in the offing," Yanukovych said in a Party of Regions press release.
Yanukovych enjoys high popularity ratings and is seen as a leading candidate in the presidential election, due in January.
The visit is the longest foreign trip so far by Patriarch Kirill, who was elected to replace the late Alexy II in February. His tour will take in pro-Russian eastern and nationalist western regions of Ukraine, as well as the Crimean Peninsula.
