Metropolitan Epifaniy thanked Patriarch Bartholomew for signing the Tomos

Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy thanked Patriarch Bartholomew for signing the Tomos, noting that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was waiting for its granting with impatience and excitement.

"I would also like to express our gratitude to the President of Ukraine and all those who worked with him and under his leadership to help us accomplish the dream of generations of Ukrainian Orthodox hierarchs and believers to have an Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Your name, Mr. President, will remain forever in the history of the Ukrainian people and the church next to the names of our princes Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, Kostiantyn Ostrozky and Hetman Ivan Mazepa," he said in the ceremony of signing the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukrainel. The solemn ceremony took place today in the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul.