His Holiness Patriarch Kirill begins his primatial visit to the Chernovtsy and Bukovina diocese

On 1 October 2011, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia began his primatial visit to the Chernovtsy and Bukovina diocese.

The official delegation accompanying His Holiness consists of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Nikolai Balashov, DECR deputy chairman; archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky, head of the Patriarch’s Press Office; archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; I. Meschan, deputy chairman of the Synodal Information Department; protodeacon Vladimir Nazarkin, assistant to the DECR chairman; and M. Kuskov, acting head of the Patriarch’s personal secretariat.

Meeting His Holiness at the airport in Chernovtsy were Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernovtsy and Bukovina; Archbishop Aleksandr of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Visnevsk; Bishop Meletiy of Khotin; Ukrainian Minister of Fuel and Energy Yury Boiko; other state officials; and clergymen of the Chernovtsy diocese.

His Holiness warmly greeted the residents of Bukovina and expressed his joy over being in this place, which has had a very complicated history, but has been marked with the surprisingly staunch Orthodox belief thanks to which people here have developed a special power of spirit.

His Holiness proceeded to the Chernovtsy diocesan administration, visited St. Nicholas’ church located in its territory and venerated relics there.

On the evening, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the All-Night Vigil at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Chernovtsy together with the assembly of hierarchs and clergymen, including ordained members of the delegation.

The cathedral could not accommodate all the worshippers, and the service was shown on the screen set up in front of the cathedral.

Metropolitan Onufriy greeted His Holiness and presented him with an icon of the Saviour.

“Many Years” was sung to Patriarch Kirill in the Church Slavonic and Moldavian languages.