24.04.2007, [17:45] // UOC-MP // risu.org.ua
Zhytomyr – On 15 April 2007, religious and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) gathered in central Ukrainian Zhytomyr to recall the 15th anniversary of a meeting which led to the creation of the UOC-MP. The April events led to a later sobor [assembly] in eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv. RISU correspondent Oleksandr Pivovarskyi reported.
In April 1992, Orthodox hierarchs, representatives of the clergy, monasteries, brotherhoods and laypeople assembled in Zhytomyr to discuss in detail the situation in parishes and ways to overcome the crisis in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, confronted with schisms, after Ukraine gained independence in 1991. Ideas analyzed at the meeting were later executed at the Kharkiv Sobor. In particular, the UOC-MP, now headed by Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), was created.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary, Metropolitan Volodymyr and Orthodox hierarchs from numerous regions of Ukraine visited Zhytomyr. Mayor V. Sheludchenko, Governor Y. Pavlenko, and local artists took part in the festivities.
In his speech UOC-MP Archbishop Hurii (Kuzmenko) of Zhytomyr and Novohrad-Volynskyi talked about the life of the UOC-MP, made a detailed presentation of the events which took place 15 years ago, and stressed: “The church has no intention of being a ‘puppet’ in political games, and its role in society should be determined not by political changes but by the laws and principles it decides to apply in reference to the civil government.”