Metropolitan Emmanuel of France to chair Unification Assembly of Ukrainian Orthodox church on December 15 in Kyiv. Ukrainian journalist Kostas Onisenko reported that on his Facebook page.
“ On December 15, the Unification Assembly of Ukrainian Orthodox church will be held in Kyiv, where the new head of the Ukrainian church shall be elected. He may not be a patriarch right from the beginning. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople signed the invitations to all the heads of Orthodox churches on the territory of Ukraine for them to participate in the Assembly,” the journalist writes.
He also states that the procedure of the election of the new head of the Ukrainian Orthodox church is specified in the document – the statutory chart, which was signed by the Ecumenical Council on November 29. According to Onisenko, Metropolitan Emmanuel of France to chair Unification Assembly of Ukrainian Orthodox church on December 15 in Kyiv.
On October 11, the Synodus lifted the anathema from Filaret, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyivan Patriarchate, and Makariy, Primate of Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Filaret stated that united Jubilee Bishops' Council would take place soon to create a unified Ukrainian local church.
In addition, the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized Russia’s Orthodox Church annexation of Kyiv metropole in 1686.
As we reported earlier, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed an agreement on cooperation between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey.