KIEV, September 27. /TASS/. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa Theodore II, who is visiting Ukraine’s second largest city of Odessa, held a special prayer for the unity of the Orthodox congregation and the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Archbishop Clement, the chief of the information department of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church told TASS on Thursday.

"Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and all Africa is making a pilgrimage to Odessa," he said. "His itinerary there began with a major prayer in the metropolitan cathedral in front of the relics the Odessa diocese is keeping," Archbishop Clement said. "Numerous believers prayed together with him for the unity of the Orthodox Church."

"Patriarch Theodore II said he had come to support the [canonical] Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its Primate, Metropolitan Onuphrius in the difficult cause of being in the service of God in the independent Ukraine," he said.

Patriarch Theodore II will stay in Odessa over three days. On Friday, he will conduct a liturgy in the city’s Holy Trinity cathedral.

"He spoke in favor of unity of the canonical Church in Ukraine with Metropolitan Onuphrius at the head," His Eminence Clement said.

The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria and all Africa is the second in the Diptychs - the list of commemoration of the Supreme Hierarchs of local Orthodox Churches.

In the morning, Theodore II and Metropolitan Sabbas, the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church, made an appeal to everyone, who could play a role in the elimination of the canonical turmoil in Ukraine arising from the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to grant an autocephaly to it.

The two Primates asked all the parties concerned to do everything in their power for avoid a conflict that has sprung up around the issue.