The Ukrainian local Orthodox Church could get from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople a tomos for autocephaly as early as October 9-18, 2018, according to a Ukrainian historian and religious scholar Rostyslav Martyniuk.
"According to the verified data, the tomos should be announced at a Synaxis, which will be held at Fanar in Istanbul from Oct 9 to Oct 11," Martyniuk told Espreso.TV.
"Accordingly, the two exarchs of Constantinople are already actively working in Ukraine. All documents, all formalities have been met.They will go to Istanbul for this meeting and the reports of these two exarchs already working in Kyiv will be the last point, before the Patriarch is able to actually announce the provision of the tomos," he explained.
At the same time, the expert did not rule out that the granting of the tomos "might be postponed to November or to December."
"But this will definitely happen this year," he added.
After Ukraine receives autocephaly, the elimination will begin of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate from the country's religious life, Martyniuk noted.
"In Ukraine, we have a large structure of the Moscow Patriarchate, whose existence today is under the question mark, as we are receiving the tomos from the Constantinople Patriarchate, which will recognize the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, and accordingly the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate, which dominated in Ukraine throughout these 25-30 years, will in one way or another be eliminated from religious life, from an open or any other field," the religious scholar said.
