MOSCOW-KYIV. Patriarchal message to Ukrainian people

Web site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, 11 February, 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You have made your choice. I hope that the period of upheavals and instability will pass into history together with the recent elections. The time has come to move from words to deeds. Both those who supported the victor and those who made a different choice are to work now side by side to build a dignified life for the country and the people.

Great hopes are placed now on the newly-elected President. But Ukraine will have to cover a very difficult path. For a long time the country has been in a difficult political and economic situation. Therefore, all the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church should pray today for Ukraine. May our common prayer help our brothers and sisters to overcome the ordeals that have fallen to their lot.

However, the future of Ukraine depends most of all on her citizens themselves. No country in the world has a right to order you what to do and how to live. It is my conviction that the ancient Kiev and Ukraine on the whole will always be a major center of the world of Eastern Christianity open to cooperation with all those who are near and who are far, especially the nations tied together by a common history and common faith.

At the present time so decisive for Ukraine I ask all to act according to Christian conscience which has always been strong in the Ukrainian people. Keep, my dear ones, the spirit of peace, the spirit of brotherhood and constructive endeavors ‘and the God of love and peace will be with you' (2 Cor. 13:11).

+ KIRILL

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA