KIEV, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The leader...
a pilgrim...to touch the 1,000-year old history of our Church."He added that Kiev was like Jerusalem to Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian Orthodoxy has split in three with Ukraine"s Moscow Patriarchate becoming a self-governing but subservient part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which remains the largest church in Ukraine with 10,000 parishes. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, is not recognized in Eastern Orthodoxy. The third church, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, originally formed in 1920s, and operates almost exclusively in the western part of the country.
Filaret blamed Patriarch Kirill for the ongoing split and for the fact that "structures of Ukraine"s Moscow Patriarchate are used as instruments of Russia"s state policy."
Kiev Patriarchate officials have recently stepped up contacts with the Church of Constantinople, also known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in order
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