Ministry of Culture: Ukraine is now a canonical territory of SLC

Head of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture Andrei Yurash

The head of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, Andrei Yurash, said that at present there are active discussions in the church environment on how to compare the traditions established in the Ukrainian historical and ecclesiastic context with modern realities, reports UATV.

According to him, the Exarchs of the Patriarch of Constantinople are currently negotiating with all the participants of the unification process, and as a result of these consultations, the date of the “unification council” will be determined which the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will then proclaim. Yurash suggested that the “council” might be scheduled until December 25, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate celebrates Christmas.

According to the official, the newly formed church structure will have all the necessary characteristics for the Church.

“It will have a leader – the elected head of the Church and also a governing body – the Synod,” he noted. “On the other hand, there are long-standing traditions in Ukraine. For this reason, active discussions have been on in the church environment on how to compare what has been established in the Ukrainian historical and ecclesiastic context with the realities of the modern world.”

“Other Churches in the state will be able to operate in Ukraine but they will already be in the canonical territory of the new United Local Church,” the director of the Department for Religious Affairs said.

Earlier, Andrei Yurash said that after receiving the Tomos, the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” would belong to the SLC, while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church itself would either become an exarchate or be reformatted into a separate metropolitanate of the “Russian Church in Ukraine”.

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