UOC-KP Council to meet on Dec 13

A meeting of the Bishops' Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) will be held in Kyiv on December 13, on the eve of a unification council, at which the single Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be created, Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine Filaret has said.

"On the eve of the unification council that will be convened on December 15, 2018, the Holy Synod convenes a meeting of the Bishops' Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate that will be held in Kyiv on December 13," he said.

Filaret said that the task of the unification council is to approve the decision on the church unity of Orthodox believers in Ukraine and elect the primate of the single local autocephalous UOC, who on its behalf will receive a Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos of Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On October 11, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant a tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

At a three-day meeting, which ended on November 29, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate adopted a draft constitutional charter of the Ukrainian Church.

On December 5, President Petro Poroshenko said that the unification council would be held at Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv on December 15.

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