The U.S. says tolerance and restraint are key principles for people with different religious affiliations.
"The U.S. government supports all Ukrainians' ability to worship as they choose. Tolerance and restraint are key principles for people with different religious affiliations to be able to live together and prosper," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine wrote on Twitter, following the visit of St. Sophia Cathedral by United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale.
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.
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On January 6, Epifaniy, as Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, received from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul the tomos of autocephaly (independence) of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy was inaugurated as Primate of the newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine at Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral on February 3.
