Ukraine close to receiving autocephaly from Constantinople - Poroshenko

The process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has already entered the finish line.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a meeting with the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton (Canada), an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukrainians have been praying for hundreds of years to have a Ukrainian local Orthodox church. And the views of the Ukrainians were directed to the Mother Church and Constantinople. I am pleased that God has heard our prayers, and I am pleased that we have walked this path together, especially in the last three years, and as part of this path we can already say that we have entered the finish line," he said.

Poroshenko also thanked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew "for courage and wisdom," which he showed in connection with the appointment of exarchs in Ukraine.

Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon, in turn, said that he and Bishop Ilarion had arrived in Kyiv as representatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in order to "continue work on the already resolved issue that the process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has already begun."

op