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19 April 2018, 14:37Rada speaker hopes for approval of autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church by late July
Kiev, April 19, Interfax - The creation of a local Orthodox Church in Ukraine may be approved on the 1,030th anniversary of the christening of Rus-Ukraine, Verkhovnaya Rada speaker Andrey Parubiy said.
"I hope the people of Ukraine will receive a historical gift from the holy patriarch in the year of the 1,030th anniversary of the christening of Rus-Ukraine," Parubiy said in the Rada on Thursday while presenting a draft decree supporting the Ukrainian president's address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
The address could speed up the proclamation of the creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he said.
The Verkhovnaya Rada approved an address to Patriarch Bartholomew in 2016, he said. "It really intensified dialogue and promoted a debate on the creation in Ukraine of a unified local Orthodox Church," Parubiy said.
He also called it a significant fact that this year is the 100th anniversary of the convocation of the all-Ukrainian church assembly, which supported the creation of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. "Then, 100 years ago, on January 19, 1918, the work of the assembly was interrupted by the Russian Bolshevik troops' offensive on Kiev. Today we have the same enemy, which is trying to dictate our history to us, what our future should be like. But now we are restoring the chance that we failed to use 100 years ago," Parubiy said.
The 1,030th anniversary of the christening of Kievan Rus-Ukraine will be celebrated on July 27-28, 2018.
A tomos of the Constantinople Patriarchate on re-subordinating the Kiev Metropolis to Moscow was issued in 1686 due to the joining of left-bank Ukraine to the Russian state. The decision was backed by the other Eastern patriarchs.
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