Poroshenko personally undertakes to create One Local Church

On September 7, pronouncing his address in the Verkhovna Rada, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declared he is set to pursue with an idea of creating a Local Orthodox Church.

“The Verkhovna Rada approved a historic address to the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant authocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Poroshenko stated. I personally wrote a letter to Bartholomew I, and this part of my speech in the Parliament is addressed not only to the MPs and the entire Ukrainian people. May His Holiness hear us as well. I want to draw attention to the existence of a firm political will to resolve this problem, which has existed since 1991. Ukraine has the right to the Local Church."

Most of the Parliamentarians acclaimed these words with applause.

"I emphasize that the emergence of the Local Church does not mean the emergence of the state church or infringement of the rights of other Orthodox faiths," Poroshenko said.

In Ukraine, according to the Constitution, the Church is separated from the state. Over the past three years, about 50 temples of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been seized by schismatics.