13 years ago, in honor of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, Patriarch Alexiy II came to Kyiv. On Khreshchatyk, during the concert of Russian rock group, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk (Gundyaev) addressed the youth:
“Hello Kyiv! Hello Ukraine!
Russia was baptized for what? In order for us to be happy. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus – this is Holy Rus! Holy Rus is not an empire, it is not an alliance: former or some kind of future. Holy Rus is the ideal of love, goodness and truth.
We are all one Holy Rus! Stay as you are, and then nothing will ever shake our unity and our spiritual strength!”
Now these words sound as if from another era, although only a little more than ten years have passed. Then representatives of 14 Local Churches, patr. Bartholomew and Alexiy II served together, and Bishop. Alexander Drabinko and the newly minted Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun wrote articles about how bad the UOC-KP and the UAOC are.
Those were the times …
