Ukrainians Await Historic Synod Decision On Independent Church

Several thousand Ukrainians rallied outside one of Kiev's main cathedrals Saturday ahead of a historic synod expected to establish an Orthodox church independent from Russia.

Kiev, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Dec, 2018 ) :Several thousand Ukrainians rallied outside one of Kiev's main cathedrals Saturday ahead of a historic synod expected to establish an Orthodox church independent from Russia.

Ukrainian priests were to meet in Kiev's Saint Sophia Cathedral to work towards founding the church, in what Kiev authorities hope will be a further step out of Russia's orbit.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko briefly came to the rally before going into the cathedral, where he is expected to attend the synod.

"Let's stand and pray for a Ukrainian church to be created today," he said as he greeted several of the rally's participants.

He has made an independent Church a campaign pledge as he looks ahead to an unpredictable election next year.

"The people have been waiting for this. Our Ukrainian church should finally be independent from Moscow," 65-year-old Mykhaylo Khalepyk, who travelled to Kiev from the southern Kherson region, told AFP.

Several of the rally's participants said local churches throughout the country had encouraged parishioners to travel to the capital and even offered free transport.

Ties between Russia and Ukraine have broken down since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 following a pro-Western uprising in Kiev, and this year those tensions spilt into the religious arena.

The synod will seek to realise a landmark decision by Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to recognise Ukraine's independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

The ruling in October sparked fury in Moscow, which has overseen the Ukrainian branch of Orthodoxy for the last 332 years, and saw the Russian Orthodox Church cut all ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The synod aims to unite various branches of the Orthodox church in Ukraine into a single independent body.

But Ukraine's Moscow-loyal church has said it will not send any representatives to the event.

That leaves the meeting between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the KievPatriarchate, the country's largest branch by number of believers, and the smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.