Ecumenical Patriarchate rejected the initiative of Moscow Patriarch to have a special discussion of granting Tomos to Ukrainian Orthodox Church at a meeting of Orthodox Churches

Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya), a spokesman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, tweeted about it, says Obozrevatel.

“The Moscow Patriarch is trying to impede the provision of the Tomos, proposing to raise this issue for discussion at the meeting of the heads of Local Churches – hoping to postpone the case. The Ecumenical Patriarch, the Church of Greece and the Bulgarian Patriarchate have already rejected the initiative of the MP,” he wrote.

According to the hierarch, the meeting of all heads of the Local Churches on the Ukrainian question will necessarily take place in the future.

“But with the participation of the Primate of the Local Autocephalous UOC, after the Tomos is implemented,” he concluded.

As was reported earlier, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew appointed his exarchs to Kyiv, the bishops from the United States and Canada, to prepare for the provision of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

Immediately after, the Russian Orthodox Church declared that its relations with Constantinople had fallen into a deadlock, and a “real threat” was looming over the entire Orthodox world.

Meanwhile, the Primate of the UOC-KP, Patriarch Filaret expressed confidence that the only Local Church in Ukraine would be created by the end of 2018.

On September 23, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said that Ukraine will receive autocephaly in the near future, because “it is entitled to it”.