UOC responds to what status Poroshenko had in the Church

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) responded to a lawyer's inquiry, confirming that Petro Poroshenko served as a sexton and provided financial support to the UOC, reports "Law and Business".

The inquiry was made in connection with well-known photographs showing Poroshenko in church attire next to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the Abbot of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel. Lawyer Olena Isayevska requested information from the UOC on whether Poroshenko had been ordained as a deacon.

"At one time, Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko was a parishioner and benefactor of the UOC. We have no information regarding Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko being ordained as a deacon of the UOC. At the same time, considering the reference in the inquiry, where Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko is seen in a sticharion carrying an icon surrounded by UOC clergy, it can be concluded that at that moment, he was performing the duties of an acolyte," the UOC's response stated. The UOC also explained that an acolyte is a layperson, not a clergyman, and that the sticharion resembles a deacon's vestment but is not the same.

As is known, the leader of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, was one of the key supporters of the law that allows for the possibility of banning the activities of the UOC.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Poroshenko stated: "I do not know such a church – the UOC. I know that according to the current legislation there is a Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. What is the future of the Russian Orthodox Church? Terrible. Because it's not a church. This is a KGB den that approves and blesses the murder of Ukrainians, poison for any believer."