Rada backs Poroshenko's request for Ecumenical Patriarch on setting up autocephalous local Orthodox church in Ukraine

13:11, 19.04.2018 1 min read

Ukrainian lawmakers have supported the appeal of the president of Ukraine to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant a tomos about the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Some 268 MPs voted for the relevant resolution (No. 8284) at a plenary session on Thursday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

The decision was supported by 99 MPs of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, 73 of the People's Front, 19 of the Samopomich faction, 16 of Oleh Liashko's Radical Party faction, 15 of the Batkivschyna, and 11 of the People's Will group.

The Opposition Bloc faction said it would vote against request for Ecumenical Patriarch on issuing a tomos on granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

"Our faction is against this decree and insists that church issues should be resolved only at the level of inter-church dialogue conducted by the heads of the churches. We will vote against it," Opposition Bloc faction co-chairman Yuriy Boiko said in the parliament on Thursday.