Deputies vote for "granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church"

Poroshenko persistently asked the deputies to intervene in the affairs of the church and support the draft resolution

On April 19, the Verkhovna Rada voted for "church ideas" of President Poroshenko on granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. 268 deputies voted "in favor" of the President's appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Apparently, in order to encourage the deputies to adopt the "right" decision, Petro Poroshenko addressed the parliament. He delivered a big solemn speech, noting that the sun glanced into the windows of the parliament, apparently to highlight the significance of the historic event.

"I wrote an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch for granting Tomos, which will further strengthen the interfaith peace in Ukraine," said the President. "It will squeeze out the rudiment of the project, which is called the "Russian world". Finally, our single Orthodox Church will be the largest in the entire Orthodox world."

Poroshenko recalled that autocephaly was granted to Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Georgia and it would be time for Ukraine to follow the example of "EU comrades".

"Now our church is connected with the aggressor state, our own Church is a necessary attribute of our Ukrainian state," the President assured the parliamentarians. "Consolidation is our main weapon in the fight against the Russian aggressor. Our Church is the de-linking of the last dependence on Moscow."

After that, Poroshenko reminded all the MPs of the visa-free status, EU association and possible membership in NATO and persistently asked for supporting the resolution.

The draft document was presented by Speaker Andrei Parubiy, who recalled that the parliamentarians had voted for such a move earlier, which was much valuable for the country. In his speech, Parubiy called the Resolution the only chance that could change the history and future of the whole country.

"This is a question of the existence of the whole nation," the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada solemnly declared, "God will help us in this. Christ is risen! Glory to Ukraine!"

The co-rapporteur of the draft was the people's deputy of Ukraine Irina Podoliak from "Samopomich".

The discussion was not without Oleg Liashko from the "Radical Party". He supported Poroshenko in "fighting the aggressor".

The floor was also given to the opposition. The head of the opposition bloc, Yuri Boyko, with the present screaming "Shame!", tried to appeal to common sense and note that the authorities have no right to intervene in church affairs. MP Andrey Shipko also tried to break through the veil of pathos and triumph and reminded that one must be very cautious in religious disputes and ask oneself if the people's deputies have the right at all to put questions about the creation of the church to a vote.

The heads of the other factions spoke practically the same thing from the rostrum: "singleness", "struggle with the Russian aggressor", "historic chance", "Moscow swamp".

"If we want success, happiness and prosperity for our people, we must be united, and the Single Local Orthodox Church is that spiritual foundation that will unite our state. All Ukrainians should pray that we have such a monolithic spiritual foundation. Ukraine will not rise from its knees until it kneels down before God," Yulia Timoshenko said.

First Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Irina Gerashchenko closed the entire discussion with a call "to be honest and work for the creation of a single local church, where they will pray for the Ukrainian army".

On April 18, Petro Poroshenko received from the so-called "patriarch" of the secular church Filaret an official appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew to issue the Tomos of autocephaly, which was "signed by all the bishops of the UOC KP".

The UOJ explained whether it is possible to create a single local church without the UOC.

World Orthodoxy recognizes only one canonical Church in Ukraine – the UOC. If the Kiev Patriarchate receives recognition, this will be the beginning of canonical anarchy and a precedent for schismatics.

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