For the First Time Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Volodymyr Prayed at St. Sophia Cathedral

On July 26, 2010, for the first time since he was elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine 18 years ago, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) prayed at the historical cathedral of the metropolitans of Kyiv.

It was also the first time that the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church visited St Sophia.
As RISU learned from the deputy head of the Synodal Department of Information and Education of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Zhanna Shevchenko, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in concelebration with Metropolitan Volodymyr performed a prayer service.

Concelebrating with  them were members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and the members of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.

Upon completion of the prayer service Patriarch Kirill addressed those present with an archpastoral word in which he called to pray for restoring unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy under the omophorion of the Metropolitan of Kyiv.

In remembrance of his visit to the ancient cathedral of Rus, the patriarch granted to St. Sophia Church a copy of an icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign" dated from 1742 from St. Sophia Church of Novhorod.

Photograph: fotolitopys.in.ua