President specified three most important points in the making of Ukrainian autocephaly

On April 23, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko became the guest of “Freedom of Speech” at ICTV channel. The program discussed the prospects and consequences of creation of the one local church in Ukraine.

As you know, last week the President of Ukraine appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the issue of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On April 23, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate made public the information that they would proceed with the study of this issue and the consultations.

“Can Kirill stop the bestowal of the Tomos of autocephaly?” - Petro Poroshenko asked rhetorically. "No one, including Kirill, has the right to veto the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch. He does not ask permission from Kirill, but holds consultations on this issue.

Now the most important 3 points that Petro Poroshenko outlined:

1 Unity within the country for the formation of the independent sovereign Ukrainian state, the key element of which is the creation of the Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

2. Determination and struggle for the creation of this Church.

3. And most importantly, it is a prayer to God so He bestows on us His grace and grants us the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church. For if faith is lost, then surely nothing can work. If we have faith, the whole world will believe in it. We are very close, like never before, to this historic moment. It is not as good as done yet. We have undertaken everything dependent on us, but we have to do so even more. This is not just a church and state issue. This is a historic event when for the first time in hundreds of years the state returns its own Church. This will symbolize that the state eventually received an extremely important element of statehood, independence, and Ukrainianness.

We will add that during the transfer, a poll was conducted, which showed that 84% were for the creation of a single local Orthodox Church in Ukraine and 16% against.