MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev congratulated the newly elected Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP), Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky), and said he hoped that his efforts would help establish and maintain peace in Ukraine, the Cabinet said on its website Sunday.
"Please, accept my sincere congratulations on your election as Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church… I am sure that you will do everything to establish and maintain peace, to strengthen the Orthodox unity, and to revive spiritual and moral values," he said in the congratulatory telegram.
Onufriy’s election as Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the "hard" times for Ukraine is an example of "true catholicity and celebration of the Orthodoxy,” the Russian prime minister said.
The previous head of UOC, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Volodymyr, died on July 5. The election of a new primate was held in Kiev on August 13. Of the 74 candidates, Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna was elected in two rounds of voting.
The enthronement ceremony of the newly elected primate was held at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra on Sunday.
The UOC (MP) is currently the only Ukrainian church to have full canonical standing in Eastern Orthodoxy, and operates in full communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which has 12,500 congregations, is the largest of the three Orthodox churches in Ukraine.
