Spiritual leader of the Orthodox, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople kisses a loaf of bread during a welcoming ceremony at Boryspil Airport, Kiev, July, 25, 2008.
Photo: AP
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Extremist Plan Their Own Christian Anni
Extremist groups planned actions in Ukraine during the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the conversion of Russia to Christianity, Ukrainian Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko said Friday at a press conference on the ministry’s activities in the first half of the year. Events dedicated to the 1020th anniversary of the “baptism” of Kievan Rus will take place July 25-27 in Kiev. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II will be in attendance.
“I have much alarming information in particular about the intentions of certain extremist groups that want to use the celebration of the holy date for our country for their narrow political goals,” Lutsenko said. He said the groups were “on the side of the Moscow Patriarchate and on the side of the Kiev Patriarchate, if you conditionally divide them that way.” Lutsenko said he could not mention specific persons yet, but “the police have already responded to the majority of cases and were continuing to work on the situation. Some of them did not make it to Kiev and some of them are under the close watch and guard of the police.”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a schism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Some of its priests left the Moscow Patriarchate and created the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate.
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