Poroshenko: 5 years ago we created our Church

Petro Poroshenko, the head of the OCU Serhiy Dumenko and Metropolitan Emmanuel, the Phanar hierarch. Photo: t.me/PresidentPoroshenko

MP Petro Poroshenko said that 5 years ago the state created its own Church, so the UOC should be banned, as Ukraine does not "need" it. He wrote about this on his Telegram channel on the occasion of the anniversary of the "Unification Council" where the OCU was created.

According to him, the path to the creation of the OCU, which today is "equal among equals in the constellation of local Orthodox sister Churches", was "neither easy nor simple and nor short".

Poroshenko said that with his team they had worked hard for years, each in their place and direction, to get the Tomos.

He noted that he remembers "with warmth in his heart every meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Phanar, Istanbul, every meeting with representatives of Constantinople in Kyiv, the Cross Procession on the Day of Baptism of Rus-Ukraine and finally the cherished bestowal of the Tomos".

The former president also thanked Patriarch Bartholomew, Serhiy Dumenko and other "hierarchs" of the OCU for "unity".

"A special thanks to the tens of thousands of people who on that December cold day stood for many hours at the Hagia Sophia and prayed for our spiritual independence, affirming our Faith," he added.

As reported, the Jerusalem hierarch stated that the Jerusalem Patriarchate does not recognise the OCU because it is a structure imposed by Ukraine's political leadership as an alternative to the legitimate Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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