Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I says it is a great honor for him to visit Ukraine and Kyiv on the occasion of the 1020th anniversary of Kyiv Rus Baptism, he said on his arrival in the Boryspil Airport addressing participants in the ceremonial meeting.
Addressing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and those present, the Patriarch gave glory to Jesus Christ saying the following: "It is a great honor and pleasure for me to visit today and in the course of three days beautiful Ukraine and its beautiful capital - the city of Kyiv".
According to him, a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarch arrived in Ukraine as a bearer of a word of the maternal church of Christ. "We have come there as pilgrims and the ones who appreciate a common and fraternal glory of Ukraine," the Patriarch stressed calling Dnieper Jordan were our ancestors were baptized.
Bartholomew I emphasized that he arrived in Ukraine to commemorate martyrs of evil times, to incline the head to Holodomor victims. Another mission is to facilitate peace and integration of Ukraine's Orthodox churches into a single one. "We have arrived there to pray with you for consolidation of all Ukraine's Orthodox churches into a single one - the church of your people, your country," Bartholomew I said.
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