PRESIDENT AND CHURCHES OF UKRAINE OFFICIALLY ASK CONSTANTINOPLE PATRIARCH TO GRANT TOMOS OF AUTOCEPHALY
Today the president of Ukraine met with the heads of all fractions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for discussing the church-state question. Petro Poroshenko stated that he has made the decision to ask Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant a tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The president requested that his request be supported by members of parliament and the Ukrainian people. "The relevant appeal should be confirmed by the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine," Poroshenko stressed.
The head of state noted that the appeal in his name has already been sent to the ecumenical patriarch and he hopes that at the next council, Constantinople will make a positive decision on the Ukrainian question. "I believe this decision will be made by the 1,030th anniversary celebration of the baptism of Rus-Ukraine," he declared.
Petro Poroshenko also reported that the entire episcopate of the Kiev patriarchate had signed a similar appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew. This idea also was supported by representatives of other churches.
"I had a meeting with Metropolitan Makary of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAPTs) and I was informed that the Bishops' Council of the UAPTs today also supported the appeal to the ecumenical patriarch and the president," he declared.
The president also emphasized that the formation of a new, united local Orthodox church in Ukraine is an historic event in the life of the independent state of Ukraine. "Ukraine, as an independent state, does not simply have the right. It is obligated to create such a church and to demonstrate such unity in this question as all churches have shown," Poroshenko declared.
He also noted that a united local Orthodox church will not become a state church. Any person has the right to independently select a confession to his liking.
"I want to emphasize separately that a united Orthodox local church will not become a state church. And the separation of the church from the state will exist. All believers have and will have the right to select freely for themselves both a specific church building and a church jurisdiction. Whoever wishes to remain in that church that maintains prayer unity with the Russian Orthodox Church will also preserve to themselves the guaranteed right of personal choice. In this question, either religious or any other kind of compulsion or prohibition is categorically impermissible," the president said.
As RISU already reported, on 9 April Petro Poroshenko, during a visit to Turkey, conducted a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
The president of Ukraine described for the patriarch his trip to Mariupol and Volnovakh on the eve of Easter, where people need peace and a cessation of Russian aggression.
Poroshenko also noted the importance of introducing a united local Orthodox church into Ukraine for which the Ukrainian people are striving. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 April 2018)
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