Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Constantinople in Kyiv:Patriarchal Church Reopened

On 13 December 2020,Old Calendar St.Andrew's Day, the Church of St. Andrew in Kyiv was reopened with a blessing by water by His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France,who was representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate along with Patriarchal Deacon Iakovos Krochak.The reopening of the gates service preceded an hierarchal Divine Liturgy concelebrated by hierarchs including His Eminence Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, representing His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine ,and His Grace Bishop Michael of Komana,Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine. Also attending were former President of Ukraine Petro Porishenko; Members of the Ukrainian Parliament;a representative of the Greek Embassy in Kyiv; and other officials.* The Church of St.Andrew was given to the Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Ukrainian state in 2018.Thus it is a stavropigial institution, directly under the Patriarch of Constantinople.Metropolitan Emmanuel noted that the stavropigion is: the true witness of the strong unity of the Church body, and it is by no means an open interference in the internal affairs and operation of each Church.That is, the stavropigion is a sign of spiritual coexistence.* The ornate baroque-style church has westernised iconography framed with gold on the red iconostasis.* Speaking on Ukrainian TV,Mr.Poroshenko said that two more Orthodox Churches are close to recognising the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.He knows this from his diplomatic channels.So far, four Orthodox Churches have recognised the OCU: Constantinople,Alexandria, Greece and Cyprus.*