Public parade vs Cross procession: government’s battle for Tomos
On July 27-28, a grand celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the Rus Baptism was held in Kiev. This event attracts great attention of the whole country every year.
The year of 2018 was different from the previous ones. The authorities of Ukraine are now making serious efforts to legalize the UOC KP and the UAOC under the guise of the Local Church. The official festivities of the Baptism of Rus were attended by the delegation of Constantinople, therefore the potent administrative resource was used by the power to reduce the number of believers in the Cross procession of the UOC on July 27 as much as possible, and to increase simultaneously the number of people at the event of the UOC KP on July 28th.
We will show if the authorities managed to carry out what had been conceived by them, how many people participated in the processions of the UOC and the UOC KP, and how all this was highlighted in the Ukrainian media.
