• Home page
  • News
  • President thanks Parliament for their appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew I on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine...

President thanks Parliament for their appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew I on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine

06.09.2016, 12:27
President thanks Parliament for their appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew I on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine - фото 1
President Petro Poroshenko thanked MPs for their appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephalous status to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. He was reported as saying this in his annual address to parliament.

President Petro Poroshenko thanked MPs for their appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephalous status to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. He was reported as saying this in his annual address to parliament.

 

Порошенко_виступ.jpeg

 

“I think it is clear we will not contemplate intervention of another state in our religious matters, its attempts to use to its advantage the feelings of the Ukrainian Orthodox people. Dear Members of Parliament, I would like to thank you for the appeal of the Ukrainian Parliament to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as the Primate of our Mother Church to provide Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. This step was necessary within the tradition, according to which the Ecumenical Patriarch relies in such matters on the opinion of secular authorities. We have paid tribute to this tradition, and we hope that His All-Holiness has heard us.

Taken into account the opinion polls that show that a growing number of Orthodox citizens of Ukraine want to have - as is customary in most Orthodox countries - one national Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

 

At the same time, I want to assure you that autocephaly does not mean the emergence of a state church. Not a single comma will change in the constitutional principles of cooperation between the state and religious organizations and the freedom of conscience will not be limited by anything to anyone. Every Ukrainian must and will have the right to believe in God in his own way and go to his church,” Poroshenko said.

 

As reported, on June 16, 2016 the Ukrainian parliament by 245 votes adopted the draft resolution (No.4793) “On appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch on granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”

 

In its appeal, the Parliament calls Bartholomew to annul the act in 1686, according to which the Kyiv Metropolis was annexed to the Moscow Patriarchate “in violation of the canons.”