Church leaders pray for religious unity, peace

The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, shared a service on Sunday with Ukrainian Metropolitan in Kyiv in a demonstration of "unity in belief."

Both prayed for Ukrainian independence, peace, and church unity.

The prayer was held in both Greek and Ukrainian languages.

Metropolitan Epiphanius I is head of the Ukrainian Orthodox church at St Sophia's Cathedral, independent of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Speaking at the service, Epiphanius I lamented that "not all orthodoxies of Ukraine did not realise the truth" of unity of religious beliefs.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine spent a silent protest against Ecumenical Patriarch's visit to Ukraine.

IMAGE: AP