President Poroshenko calls on world's Orthodox Churches to recognize OCU

President Poroshenko called on the Orthodox Churches of the world to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Head of State said this in a speech after the Nativity Liturgy in St Sofia of Kyiv, during which the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was presented.

“We call upon all the Orthodox churches in the world to recognize the OCU as a sister church, to remember the name “the Holy Church of Ukraine” as having its chair in its historical city of Kyiv,” said Petro Poroshenko and added:

“Our ancient Church, whose history dates back to the time of Prince Volodymyr, was finally liberated by us from Moscow's captivity, and it entered the family, which now consists of 15 independent local Orthodox Churches, as equal among the equals. We broke up the last bonds that were binding us with Russia, with her fantasies about Ukraine as a canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. This will not be the case either,” the President emphasized.

Obtaining the Tomos was compared by Petro Poroshenko to gaining independence. He stressed that there is nothing impossible when Ukrainians act together as “one Ukrainian political nation.”