Yushchenko: Ukraine to receive Tomos of autocephaly at no risk of church division

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will grant to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the Tomos of autocephaly as there are all grounds for this. This opinion was expressed by the third Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in an interview for Ukrayinska Pravda.

“We will get the Tomos, certainly. Several ecclesial councils were held, the council agenda was approved, the Pan-Orthodox Council was held, and appropriate decisions were made. However, four Patriarchs out of fifteen, led by the Russian Patriarch, did not attend it,” the politician said.

According to Ukraine's former president, there is currently no danger of the split between the Churches.

“The planned split or the formation of a separate opposition, such as the Slavic ecclesiastical opposition, is largely out of place, and the Patriarch of Constantinople has a free hand. Everything that was to be done to consolidate the World Orthodoxy has already been done. All procedural issues have been settled,” Yushchenko stressed.

He also said that he met with the current Head of State Petro Poroshenko and ex-presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma a few months ago to discuss the Church issues.

“Three presidents visited Petro Oleksiyovych, and we spoke about what our tactics – of the three presidents -- on this issue should be like,” Yushchenko said.