Klimkin to hold talks with Patriarch Theophilos III in Israel
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin will be on a working visit to Israel on June 18-19, where he will hold a meeting with the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will participate in the Eleventh Meeting of the Joint Ukrainian-Israeli Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Jerusalem, reports the press-service of the MIA of Ukraine.
"Within the framework of the visit of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, meetings with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III are planned," the press service writes.
Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin is actively lobbying President Petro Poroshenko's initiatives to create a Single Local Church in Ukraine. Klimkin held relevant negotiations with representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora of Canada and Vatican.
Earlier, Pavel Klimkin called on all Ukrainian faiths to help create a Single Local Church.
In mid-April, Poroshenko turned to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with a request to grant Tomos on autocephaly of the Church in Ukraine and announced the creation of the Single Local Church. The Verkhovna Rada supported the petition of the President. The Kiev Patriarchate has already announced that they see their leader Filaret, anathematized by the canonical Church, as the SLC head.
