Details of the upcoming meeting of Poroshenko with UOC episcopate published
The President will meet with the Primate and hierarchs of the UOC on November 13. A bishops’ meeting will take place at 13:00, the head of state will arrive at 14:00.
According to media reports, the meeting takes place against the backdrop of the crisis in the process of creating the Single Local Church, writes "Vesti".
The edition has found out that the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko initiated a meeting with the Primate and the bishop of the UOC. At the same time, the President insisted that the hierarchs of the UOC should come to him for the reception at the Ukrainian House. He discussed this issue with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine in a telephone talk on the evening of November 9.
According to a source in the Presidential Administration, the reason for attempting to move the meeting from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where it was originally planned, was of a protocol nature. The President insisted on meeting at the Ukrainian House, as he was afraid that his visit to the Lavra might be perceived by the public as an expression of support for the UOC.
The edition explains: the telephone conversation lasted a long time. His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry did not agree to transfer the meeting to the Ukrainian House and insisted that the head of state come to the Lavra. After much hesitation, the President agreed.
According to the source, Poroshenko complained in a conversation that he did not want the information about the upcoming meeting to be leaked to the press. However, by the time of the conversation, the information that such a meeting was scheduled had already become known to the public.
The resource also reports that according to unofficial data, Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Bar, who, according to media reports, was planned to be considered as a candidate for the post of head of the EOC, will not be present at the meeting with Poroshenko. He suddenly has fallen ill and is in hospital.
As the UOJ reported, earlier the political expert Ruslan Bortnik explained that the process of creating a new church structure resulted in a deadlock and went not in a way the Presidential Administration would like to. According to him, without representatives of the largest denomination, the UOC, the unification Council will turn into a founding one: the Patriarchate of Constantinople declares that the schism has not been overcome, and therefore does not see its Patriarchate in Ukraine yet. That is why the President is trying to persuade the hierarchs of the UOC to cooperate and participate in the unification Council, the political analyst said.
