The fifth president of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity Party Petro Poroshenko, who is visiting Turkey, met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
This is reported by Pryamiy Channel.
“I thanked His Holiness for his great faith in God, for his great faith in Ukraine and for his great love for Ukraine,” Petro Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko also took part in the Divine Liturgy on the occasion of the Holy Trinity day at the Patriarchal Church of St. George. The liturgy was led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
“We are happy to welcome the esteemed gentleman today and offer prayers together in our Cathedral. As you probably know, it is the Great Orthodox - the Holy Trinity celebrated fifty days after Easter. And it was a pleasure to remember how we jointly granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. And it is very gratifying to see how the new church is developing and making progress,” the Ecumenical Patriarch says.
He confirmed that he plans to visit Ukraine in August. “We thank the Lord, and I look forward to visiting Ukraine in August to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of independence and Ukraine together with the Ukrainians. Therefore, we will have the pleasure and happiness to be back in the Holy Ukrainian land, which has become Christian thanks to the efforts and missionary work of the mother Orthodox Church of Constantinople,” Bartholomew said.
“I extend my blessing and congratulations to all people in Ukraine, to all Ukrainians without exception, without separating them in any way. May the Lord bless Ukraine and the Ukrainians,” the Ecumenical Patriarch wished.
The head of the Western Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States, Archbishop Daniel (Zelinsky), who also took part in the Liturgy, congratulated Ukrainians on the day of the Holy Trinity.
“During this liturgy, the entire Ecumenical Orthodox Church actually united, using different languages and praying before the throne of the Almighty for the people of Ukraine here, in the patriarchal cathedral,” Archbishop Daniel said.
He noted the extremely important role of the fifth president in obtaining the Tomos on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
”The contribution of Petro Poroshenko is invaluable because it was he who was the driving force when the Ukrainian people tried for centuries to restore historical justice in order to have their own metropolis, restore their metropolis and the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Archbishop Daniel recalled.
“As Patriarch Bartholomew once said, every Ukrainian president tried it, and only Poroshenko was able to ensure that all the prerequisites for the Ukrainian Orthodox to unite, receive their own church and universal recognition were fulfilled. And now it is a common cause for all Orthodox Christians, so that this unification ends in Ukraine and that other Orthodox churches all recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” says Rostislav Pavlenko, MP from the European Solidarity faction.