Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the Ecumenical Patriarchate has recognized itself competent to grant autocephaly [church's ecclesiastical independence] without agreeing the issue with other churches, thus Ukraine has the right to establish its own Local Orthodox Church.
"The Ecumenical Patriarchate has adopted a decision on the right of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant to any states the right to establish a Local Church without Moscow's consent. And first of all, Ukraine is given the right to establish a Local Orthodox Ukrainian Church," Poroshenko wrote on Twitter.
As UNIAN reported earlier, at a meeting with leaders of parliamentary factions April 17, Petro Poroshenko announced that he and the hierarchs of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church decided to officially address Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I with a request to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and called for the parliament to support the appeal.
On April 19, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on supporting the president's appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch.
On April 22, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate accepted the appeal for further consideration.
Patriarch Bartholomew I on July 27 released an address, noting that the ultimate objective of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian local Orthodox Church.
On September 2, emeetings (Synaxis) were held of the Hierarchy of the Ecumenical Thron Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, to consider the question whether the Church of Constantinople is authorized, without the consent of other churches, to grant autonomy, or autocephaly, to a church that has requested it.
Following the meetings, the answer was positive: "Yes, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is authorized to grant autocephaly without any consent [from other churches]."
