Poroshenko announced the beginning of the introduction of the autocephaly of the UOC
The Patriarchate of Constantinople begins the procedure to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly. This was announced by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
“The decision adopted by the Holy and sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who yesterday accepted an appeal from the President to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the granting of the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine”, — wrote the Ukrainian leader on his page in Facebook.
The intention to create a single Ukrainian Church Poroshenko announced on 17 April, saying that “Ukraine is closer than ever to the emergence in Ukraine of its own Autocephalous national Church.” After that, he asked the Patriarch of Constantinople permission for Church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The intention Poroshenko was supported by the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada.
Now in Ukraine there is the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The UOC-MP the President’s address to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has called interference in the Affairs of the Church, stressing that religious questions cannot be used as a tool of geopolitics.