Ukrainian Church Reunification Talks Collapse

Negotiations on reunification between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate and the smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church started in May, raising hopes that the country would again have one church.

Representatives of both churches said today the talks collapsed and blamed each other.

The spokesman for the Autocephalous Church, Deacon Taras Soluk, said the other side was more interested in "annexation" than in reunification.

Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate, accused leaders of the other church of quote "inconsistent and non-constructive positions."

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's Orthodox community split due to disagreements about the church's relationship to the Russian Orthodox Church.

(AP)