PATRIARCH KIRILL OF MOSCOW COMMEMORATED DURING THE NATIVITY DIVINE LITURGY IN KYIV

Emma Cazabonne, orthodoxie

On January 7, during the Nativity Divine Liturgy at Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv, “Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine” commemorated the Russian Orthodox Church Primate for the first time since the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU-KP) creation.

At the Grand Entrance, after mentioning the Patriarch of Constantinople, he commemorated the Primates of all the Local Orthodox Churches, including the name of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (at 1:04 in the video here below).

President Poroshenko was present. He had repeatedly said that churches where they pray for the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church cannot be called Ukrainian. On October 14, he said, “Can we call Ukrainian the churches where they pray for Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who in turn prays for the Russian army that kills Ukrainian soldiers and the civilian population? I ask the people and the faithful of this Church to think about it.”

Let us recall that between the moment of the creation of the OCU on December 15 and Epifaniy’s trip to Istanbul on January 6, the name of the Moscow Patriarch had not been commemorated during the liturgical services of the newly-formed church structure.