Poroshenko: Unification Council is to be held on December 15

President Petro Poroshenko

President Petro Poroshenko said that the "Council" will elect the head of the new Church and approve its statute. This is reported by Interfax.

“The Council will be held on December 15, 2018,” Petro Poroshenko said at the Local Self-Government Forum in Kiev on December 5, 2018.

He added: “This Council will approve the statute of our new Church. This Council will elect its primate.”

The BBC resource claims that the date of the "council" was confirmed by its sources in Constantinople.

According to the BBC, the "Unification Council" will last one day. It will be led by Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France, a special representative of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Exarchs of Phanar to Ukraine Archbishop Daniel (Zelinsky) and Bishop Hilarion will also take part in the event.

As the UOJ reported, the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate prepared a draft statute for the future Local Church of Ukraine, but did not name the final date of the “council” in its communiqué. President Petro Poroshenko said that the date of the "council" will be determined by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Earlier, Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the UOC DECR, explained: he considers it strange to draw up a statute for the Church which does not exist. “This indicates a certain dependence or lack of independence of the Ukrainian side in this process. Because all the Churches that previously received autocephaly, wrote their statutes on their own. And now Phanar writes it for Ukraine and says what it should be like,” explained the priest

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