A bill on repeal of transfer of Andrew’s Church to Phanar submitted to Rada

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Parliamentarians from the Opposition Bloc, Mikhail Dobkin, Nestor Shufrich and Alexander Vilkul, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law on the abolition of the transfer of the Church of St. Andrew to the Constantinople Patriarchate. It was said on October 18 by Mikhail Dobkin on his Facebook page.

Simultaneously, the MPs prepared a draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada on the transfer for temporary use of the Patriarch of Constantinople of the building of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine on Bankova Street, for the period until March 31, 2019.

According to media reports, the President of Ukraine will not be able to sign the law on the transfer of St. Andrew’s church to the Constantinople Patriarchate until the Rada reviews the draft resolution of the Opposition Bloc members.

On October 18, the Verkhovna Rada voted to transfer St. Andrew's church to the Phanar. Earlier, the representative of the President, Irina Lutsenko, said that the transfer of the church to Constantinople is “a symbolic gesture of unity with the Mother Church”.