Russia's Orthodox believers are celebrating the country’s conversion to Christianity 1,020 years ago. On Saturday Russia's Patriarch Aleksy II is to join the festivities in Kiev, which was the former capital of the Slavic state.

On Friday Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople led a special evening service attended by Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko. Heads of the Orthodox Churches of Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Cyprus and the U.S. also joined the service commemorating Prince Vladimir's importing Christianity from Constantinople in 988.

The arrival of Christianity was one of the earliest turning points in Russian civilisation. As the people of Kiev gathered to be baptised at the Dnieper River in the summer of 988, they were accepting a new order and a new identity. They were saying goodbye to an old pagan world, though at first it was met with resistance by some of the pagan population. However, in time Christianity was gradually accepted and came to define the soul of the nation.

Ruled by feuding princes from Kiev, Russia in 988 – known as Kievan Rus – was a loose federation of tribes. When the seventh prince, Vladimir, came to power he recognised the need for something to unify them and he found it in the Christianity of eastern Orthodoxy.

Vladimir was mainly motivated by aesthetic reasons. His envoys watched a service in the Saint Sophia cathedral and came back saying: “We didn’t know if we were in heaven or earth for we had never seen such beauty.” Vladimir was converted and his people followed.
 
Christianity took root, in the landscape, lifestyle, art and culture of Rus. The tradition continued later in Russia, Belarus and  Ukraine, where the main celebrations are taking place this year.

In today’s Russia, this is a double anniversary. After seventy years of persecution at the hands of the Soviet regime, the thousandth anniversary in 1988 brought a second turning point. It was then that the church began to move out of the very limited space it inhabited within the walls of a few still open cathedrals.

So a millennium and two crucial decades on, Orthodox believers look to their church as an example of longevity and resilience.

Meanwhile, Russian Orthodox leaders are concerned Ukraine is seeking to split the churches of Ukraine and Russia. Russian media claim Ukraine's political authorities will try to make use of the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to Kiev.

After meeting with Bartholomew I, Ukrainian President Yushchenko said that the Patriarch's visit “would give a boost for the unity of Orthodox churches in Ukraine.”

According to official data, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchy is currently the largest religious body in the country.

Kiev Patriarchy officials have recently stepped up contacts with the Church of Constantinople, also known as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, seeking “to return Ukraine to the Mother Church.”

The drive has been actively backed by President Yushchenko and the country's other top officials and is a scenario Russia is actively trying to avoid.