Poroshenko proposes transferring St. Andrew's Church to Ecumenical Patriarchate

16.10.2018 13:46

Ukrinform

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will in the next few days register a bill which proposes transferring St. Andrew's Church to permanent use by the Ecumenical Patriarch.

The president's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Lutsenko, announced this at a meeting of the parliament's conciliation council on Tuesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The president supports the desire to obtain a tomos as soon as possible and, as a sign of solidarity with this process, makes a symbolic gesture. A bill will soon be registered with which President Poroshenko proposes transferring St. Andrew's Church to permanent use by the Ecumenical Patriarch, as a symbolic gesture that St. Andrew baptized Ukraine at one time," Lutsenko said.

According to her, the adoption of this bill will also symbolize "unity with the mother church."

Poroshenko calls on the parliament and all factions to support this bill, she added.

Lutsenko also said that the president is grateful to the Ecumenical Patriarch "for his strength and courage in the confrontation with the Kremlin."

"We understand perfectly well that after the Synod held in Minsk, they [the Russian Orthodox Church] separate from communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople - Moscow has actually driven itself into isolation," she said.