Yesterday began with a service of prayer (moleben) for the 1025th anniversary at St Vladimir’s Hill overlooking the Dnieper River where the people of Rus’ were baptized in 988. Among those present were the presidents of Ukraine, Russia, Moldova and Serbia. Most moving amid the impressive and in their own way inspiring displays of state and ecclesiastical pomp and power was the presence of the very weak and ailing Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv. It made me think of the Lord’s words to Saint Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
