I thought you might like to see photos taken by the Greek official photographer of the Ecumenical Patriarch's trip to Ukraine.

Click on 'Photo Gallery' on the left hand side and the Ukraine trip is the first on the list.

www.panagos.com

Pay special attention to photo #58 for a rare shot of Patriarch Alexei smiling and laughing.

Alice

P.S. There are also photos from his trip to Rome in June--alot of boring photos of lay members of the Greek Orthodox delegation (including the actress Melina Kanakaridis and her hubbie and children) in the beginning, but some nice ones towards the end of the Pope and the Patriarch looking awesome in their robes! The Rome trip is about halfway down the list; dated June 27.

Enjoy!

The photographs are simply breathtaking and beautiful. The liturgy must have been a foretaste of heaven.

It was also heartwarming to see the photos of the two patriarchs laughing and even (in one picture) holding hands together. After weeks of tense talk about an impending schism and realignment of World Orthodoxy, nothing of the sort happened. Given the troubles facing Christendom today, the EP was perfectly right: Church unity must have primacy. Enough of new schisms!

And we will see if that primacy will be respected in the longer run (hopefully better than Estonia).

Great pics Alice! Thanks for the post.

Thank you Alice for the link