Presidential Administration comments on the autocephaly progress and what it means for Ukraine and President
In the Presidential Administration, Rostyslav Pavlenko, the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, is responsible for Church matters. He told Glavkom at what stage the process of recognition of the Ukrainian Church is now and answered what it means for the President and his team.
According to Pavlenko, the procedures necessary to give the Tomos on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine are still ongoing, “According to tradition, such a way involves the appeals by secular and ecclesiastical authorities and the completion of a certain procedure which has its stages. Now just one of them – informing the other Churches – is continuing. The Ecumenical Patriarch demonstrates to other Churches that he has nothing to conceal. The delegation of the Patriarchate explains the logic and grounds for the provision of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Upon completion of the informing, the report of the commission will be considered at the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and, on the basis of the report -- the issue of granting the Tomos as well.”
As to the timing of the granting of the Tomos, Pavlenko confirmed the words of Patriarch Filaret that Ukrainian Orthodoxy could receive Tomos this year.
When asked whether the Presidential Administration calculated what percentage of votes the Tomos would bring to Poroshenko at the next elections, Pavlenko replied, "We have been working on the issue of facilitating autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since the very first days of Petro Poroshenko's presidency. So this is not an elections project. For the President and his team this is a matter of restoring historical justice, the issue of guaranteeing the rights of tens of millions of Orthodox believers who do not want to associate themselves with the Moscow Church, and want a full-fledged communication with the world's Orthodoxy. This is the issue of national security as well because the Church issue is used by the Russian aggressor in the “hybrid war”. This is a very serious motivation.
