Any decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on the status of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine must be taken in coordination with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and its head, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem told Sputnik.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2018) Any decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on the status of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine must be taken in coordination with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and its head, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem told Sputnik.
"We are striving for a unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine by way of peaceful and legal methods, through coordination and consultations between Orthodox churches, first of all with the Moscow Patriarchate ... Any decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on the status of the church in Ukraine must be taken in coordination Patriarch Kirill, the head of the ROC and with the Holy Synod," the archbishop, who plans to be in Moscow on September 5 to take part in an international conference organized by the Russian Council of Muftis and the Lebanese embassy, said.
Orthodox churches operating in Ukraine, aside from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is a self-governing church within the Moscow Patriarchate, also include those that are not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, such as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is trying to achieve recognition of non-canonical institutions and to create a single local autocephalous church based on them. In April, Poroshenko said that Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was launching the procedures required to establish the Autocephalous Church in Ukraine.
In response to the appeal of the Ukrainian secular authorities, the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople stated that it had decided to be in close contact with other sister Orthodox churches for their information and coordination on this request.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in Istanbul on August 31, and the sides may touch upon the situation with the church in Ukraine.
