Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said his adviser, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies Rostyslav Pavlenko will attend the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on November 27-29, which is expected to approve a tomos of autocephaly for the Ukrainian church.
"On November 27-29, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Rostyslav Pavlenko is going to Istanbul/Constantinople to attend the historic Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where a decision on the approval of a tomos will be made," Poroshenko said at a meeting with students of the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
"And in December, we'll hold a [holy] council of the new church," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 11, following a meeting of the Synod, a decision was announced, stating that the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceeds to granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine.
In addition, the legal binding of the Synod's letter of 1686 was abolished, thus taking the Kyiv Metropolis from under Moscow's canonical jurisdiction. Also, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret and head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) Makariy were reinstated in their canonical status.
On October 12, the UOC-KP urged the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to prepare for a special unification council.
On November 3, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I signed an agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
On November 19, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople said the Holy Council of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine would be held in December.
