The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine said this on March 20, during a meeting with the leadership and representatives of the Academy of Sciences Minor of Ukraine, according to the OCU website.
The Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine said this on March 20, during a meeting with the leadership and representatives of the Academy of Sciences Minor of Ukraine, according to the OCU website.
"It is due to the Revolution of Dignity that we received the long-awaited Tomos, a document on Autocephaly of our Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Many generations of our predecessors dreamed about this time and waited for it, but we became direct participants, co-authors and creators. We all together -- both the Church and you -- are the active participants of the events, we did everything in order to make this time come and now we state that we have an Independent Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the first hierarch emphasized.
Metropolitan Epifaniy also assured that the Church was seeking to unite on the principles of love and peace, “We are ready to forgive, forget, turn the page and continue to build our future together, in spite of what was in the past. We do not want to be likened to our opponents, and we will not stigmatize them, be enemies with them, sow hostility and hate, because we want everything to develop in a peaceful and loving manner.
We will continue to build our independent Church, which is the spiritual foundation of the European democratic Ukrainian state which will become a full member of the European Union and join NATO,” Metropolitan Epifaniy summed up.