Fr Nikolai Balashov, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, described as a challenge to the Orthodox world the fact Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko took part in a prayer service to honour Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa. It is well to remember here that on 19 April, the Ukrainian president not only prayed for Ivan Mazepa in St Nicholas Church, built in 2007 in a village bearing the name of the Ukrainian hetman in the Kiev oblast, but, he also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the hetman’s grave and promised that by the end of the year a monument would be unveiled to “the Ukraine’s national hero”.
The Moscow Patriarchate is convinced that Mr Yushchenko’s moves are absolutely absurd. In 1708, Hetman Mazepa was anathematised by the Orthodox Church because he violated his oath of loyalty to the Russian tsar taken upon the Gospels and allowed Swedish soldiers to defile Orthodox churches in the south of Rus. Although the Ukrainian president requested Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia more than once to lift the anathema, he was refused every time. Fr Nikolai Balashov is convinced that the speculations around the name of Ivan Mazepa, a traitor to the Russian people, are nothing but a political trick.
“Contemporary schismatic groups in the Ukraine have not been recognised either by the Moscow Patriarchate or by the Universal Orthodox Church. What is currently going on in the Ukraine can be explained by growing activity of Ukrainian politicians who would like to further separate two fraternal nations, Ukrainians and Russians. As for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the overwhelming majority of its bishops, clergy, and lay believers wish to preserve spiritual unity with the Moscow Patriarchate”. Fr Nikolai believes that the Ukrainian authorities are trying to drive a wedge between the Ukraine and the Moscow Patriarchate so that later they could easily manipulate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to their own ends. This will not only allow them to influence the political and social life of believers, but, will also distance Kiev from Moscow.
He says that Russians and Ukrainians should not put to the test their common faith since they are brother-nations baptised in Orthodox faith and born in the one state of Kievan Rus. Today, the Moscow Patriarchate and Ukrainian clergy should do all that they can to preserve confessional integrity in Russia and the Ukraine. According to Fr Nikolai, one such effort to support church unity can be the festivities marking the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. Celebratory events to be headed by the Patriarch Aleksei of Moscow and all Russia will be held in the coming summer in both Russia and the Ukraine.
22 April 2008
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=26061&cid=59&p=22.04.2008 (in English)
when i lived in Kiev in 1992-3 the American Embassy was full of Ukrainian Catholics from Canada and America –They did not hide from me their intentions of killing off ANYTHING Russian including the Balalaika! In fact thats what they did at a folk concert i was at my last month there — All the balalaika players were hidden in the back of all the other musicians–
Comment by sasha — Wednesday, 23 April 2008 @ 05:46