Parliament supported the President’s Appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch
Today, April 19, the parliamentarians upheld the petition of Petro Poroshenko to the Ecumenical Patriarch asking him to grant the Tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. About 268 MPs voted in favour.
Before the vote, the President of Ukraine spoke to the audience. He told that the dialogue between the representatives of the state and the Patriarchate of Constantinople had lasted for several years and a favorable moment had come for the autocephaly of the UOC.
“All Local Churches have been recognized through the engagement of state in this process. This is the requirement of Constantinople,” Poroshenko said.
The President recalled that Orthodoxy came to Ukraine precisely from Constantinople and spread from us to Zalissia, where the Ukrainian princes recklessly founded Moscow.
Head of state called the church to tear the umbilical cord with Moscow. He also reminded that it was the Russian church figures who invented the concept of the "Russian World," which the Kremlin later took on board.
The President claims that the Churches have finally agreed to forget about old strife for the sake of association and recognition.
Autocephaly is given not so much to a particular church but for the country, the President emphasized. That is why the Ukrainian state participates in this process.
There is not only religion, geopolitics is also involved here. This event is at the same level as the issue of visa-free regime, and the signing of the Association Agreement.
Separately, the Guarantor of the Constitution noted that this event would not violate the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. He also stressed that those who would like to remain part of the Moscow Patriarchate would reserve such a right.
The heads of virtually all factions, Parliament Chairman Andriy Parubiy and the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Spirituality Iryna Podolyak called to support the President’s appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew.
