A historic council of Orthodox bishops in Kiev has created a new Ukrainian church independent from Russia, President Petro Poroshenko announced on Saturday. The announcement came after Ukrainian priests held a historic synod in Kiev's 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral to work towards establishing an Orthodox church independent from Moscow.
"It happened," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kiev. He also announced the council had chosen the head of the new church: 39-year-old Metropolitan Yepifaniy, whose secular name is Sergiy Dumenko. "I would like to call on all our brothers, bishops and all believers to the newly created united Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Yepifaniy told the crowd outside the cathedral. "The doors of our church are open to all." Poroshenko said the event will "go down in history" as the day Ukraine "finally received (its) independence form Russia".
Earlier he addressed the synod of bishops, saying Kiev's national security depends on "spiritual independence" from Moscow. The Ukrainian leader, who has made an independent Church a campaign pledge ahead of an unpredictable election next year, told the bishops that the state "did everything it could" towards the creation of the church. Several thousand Ukrainians rallied outside the cathedral throughout the day, awaiting the synod's decision.
"The people have been waiting for this. Our Ukrainian church should finally be independent from Moscow," 65-year-old Mykhaylo Khalepyk, who travelled to Kiev from the southern Kherson region, told AFP. Vitaliya Popovych, also at the rally, said she hoped Ukraine would have a new independent church "that will have a pro-state position".
Several in the crowd said local churches across the country had encouraged parishioners to travel to the capital, even offering free transport. Ties between Russia and Ukraine have broken down since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 following a pro-Western uprising in Kiev. This year, those tensions spilled over into the religious arena.
Comments
Comments are closed.