Synod of Constantinople Patriarchate to consider SLOC petition
The Phanar announced it would examine matters pertaining to the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine, as it was done in previous synodal sessions.
On April 22 the Secretariat of Constantinople Patriarchate announced that the petition of Petro Poroshenko on bestowing autocephaly to the UOC would be considered by the Synod. It is said in the respective communiqué.
“The Ecumenical Patriarchate concerns itself with the preservation of Pan-Orthodox unity and the care for the Orthodox Churches throughout the world – especially of the Ukrainian Orthodox Nation that has received the salvific Christian faith and holy baptism from Constantinople,” the message of the CP’s Secretariat says.
“Thus, as its true Mother Church, it examined matters pertaining to the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine, as done in previous synodal sessions, and having received from ecclesiastical and civil authorities – representing millions of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians – a petition that requests the bestowal of autocephaly, decided to closely communicate and coordinate with its sister Orthodox Churches concerning this matter,” the communiqué underlines.
In his turn, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko reported on his Facebook page that “the Ecumenical Patriarchate had begun the procedures necessary to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
However, in the opinion of Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate of Constantinople intends to coordinate the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly with all the Local Orthodox Churches and, being responsible for the Pan-Orthodox unity, will do nothing to disturb this unity.
