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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has called on patriarchs and archbishops of autocephalous Orthodox churches worldwide to support the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

“The realization of all [our] efforts is expected on January 6, day of the Epiphany, on which we intend to grant the Tomos of autocephaly and concelebrate with the primate of the autocephalous Orthodox church [of Ukraine],” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated in his letter to the patriarchs and archbishops of the autocephalous Orthodox churches, published on Orthodoxia.info.

Bartholomew has added that, just as Ukrainian representatives have begun arriving at the Phanar, hierarchs of the local Orthodox churches are studying the details of the letter in order to in turn proceed with recognizing the new church.

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Patriarch Bartholomew has called upon the primates to proceed with recognition, stressing that “Should we choose to ignore our brethren who are experiencing moments of agony in Ukraine, we will not have any justification [to give] on the Day of Judgment before the fearsome, single, and just throne of the Judge of the souls and hearts of all people, our just Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Unification Council of members of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches in Kyiv on December 15 elected Metropolitan of Pereyaslavsky and Bila Tserkva from the then Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Epifaniy (also known as Epiphanius I) as head of the new local Orthodox church in Ukraine.

On January 6 in Istanbul, he, as Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, is to receive the tomos of autocephaly from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.