Kyivan Patriarchate Synod Addresses Ukraine’s President
KYIV – On May 14, 2010, the session of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) was held under the headship of Patriarch Filaret. According to the press service of тге UOC-KP, the synod blessed the church celebrations on the Day of Baptism of Kyivan Rus on July 27-29, 2010, the Orthodox pastoral-educational forum on July 29, 2010, and the marking of the 940th anniversary of laying the foundation of St. Michael’s Church of the Vydubytskyi Monastery.
The synod addressed Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych with a letter regarding the further development of the state-church relations.
The synod’s address to the president stresses that the Ukrainian Constitution and Law define the secular, that is the religiously neutral, character of the state and equality before the law of all the duly legalized denominations and that strict observance of these constitutional and legislative norms is guaranteed by stable and fruitful state-church relations. And, vice versa, dismissing these norms, showing a special attitude toward a particular confession can sharpen interdenominational arguments and social unrest, which should be prevented.
The hierarchs of the UOC-KP ask the president “to facilitate in all ways the equal treatment of different denominations, stipulated by the constitution and the laws, by state authorities and local self-government bodies both at the national and local level and prevent infringement of rights of some denominations in favor of other ones.”
The hierarchs also ask the president to promote as much as possible the continuation of the dialogue between the UOC-KP and the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate to overcome the division in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and to establish one national Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
