His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia arrives in Odessa

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia arrived in Odessa on 20 July 2010. He was met at the airport by His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine; Metropolitans Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail, Lazar of Simferopol and the Crimea, and Ilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol; Archbishops Ionafan of Tulchin and Bratslav, Varfolomei of Rovno and Ostrog, and Mitrofan of Belaya Tserkov and Boguslav, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church;  Bishop Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slavyansk, Bishop Evlogiy of Sumy and Akhtyrka, Bishop Aleksandr of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, a vicar of the Kiev diocese; and clergymen of the diocese.
Meeting the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church were also deputy prime minister of Ukraine for regional politics V. Tikhonov, chairman of the State Committee for Nationalities and Religions Yu. Bogutsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ukraine M. Zurabov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Odessa A. Grachev, head of the Odessa Regional State Administration E. Matviychuk, Odessa Mayor E. Gurvits, and other officials.

The delegation accompanying the Primate nof the Russian Orthodox Church includes Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Saransk and Mordovia, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, abbot of the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius; Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations; Mr. Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Information Department; archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy chairman of the DECR MP; Rev. Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for Inter- Christian Relations; hieromonk Antoniy (Sevryuk), head of the Patriarch’s personal secretariat, and M. Kuksov, a staff member of the same Secretariat.

A visit to Odessa begins the programme of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill’s archpastoral visits to the dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including sit the Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, and Kiev dioceses.

• ‘We do not seek the defeat but the return of our brothers…’ – Interview by V. Legoida, head of the Synodal Information Department
• Press-conference summing up Patriarch Kirill’s visitation of Ukrainian Orthodox Church
• Patriarch Kirill completes his visitation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
• ‘It is easy to pray together with the Ukrainian people’ – Patriarch Kirill’s interview to Russia-24 TV channel
• Patriarch Kirill honours memory of Great Patriotic War soldiers and victims of mass starvation in the 30s
• Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Vladimir open an exposition on Heritage of Holy Prince Vladimir at Kiev Laura of Caves
• Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Vladimir celebrate Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Laura of the Caves in Kiev
• Patriarch Kirill’s homily in Kiev Laura of Caves on the Baptism of Rus’ Day
• Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk: Many signals are coming from the schism that people feel the need to re-unite with the Church
• Appeal of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod to Orthodox Christians in Ukraine who are out of unity with the Holy Church
• Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod meets in the Kiev Laura of Caves
• Monks and laymen greet His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the Laura of the Caves in Kiev
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: Ukraine awaits a fine future, and may God grant that we all work towards this future!
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill arrives in Kiev
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill completes his visit to the Dnepropetrovsk diocese
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia meets with clergy of the Dnepropetrovsk diocese
• Patriarch Kirill meets with Ukrainian President Yanukovich
• Patriarch Kirill meets with the public in Odessa
• Patriarch Kirill made doctor honoris causa by Odessa National Academy of Law
• Patriarch Kirill gives his blessing to a girl suffering from cerebral paralysis and gives her special wheelchair for disabled children
• Ruling hierarch of the Odessa diocese give reception in honour of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates the Office of Blessing of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Odessa and officiates at the Divine Liturgy
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visits Monastery of the Dormition in Odessa
• Patriarch Kirill: I come again to this holy land with a special feeling
• His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia arrives in Odessa
• Moscow-Kiev video bridge before Patriarch Kirill’s visit to Ukraine
• Patriarch Kirill answers questions from Ukrainian journalists in anticipation of his visit to Ukraine