"GO BACK HOME": POROSHENKO DECLARES THAT THERE IS NOTHING FOR THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO DO IN UKRAINE
President Petro Poroshenko declared that the Russian church has nothing to do in Ukraine and he called its representatives to return back to Russia.
This he said on 7 November at an international conference, "Lessons of a hybrid decade: what one should know for successful movement forward," Ukrainskaia Pravda reports.
Poroshenko said that after holding a council and election of a primate of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian church will receive genuine independence.
"Ukraine and I clearly share the principle of noninterference of the state in church activity, especially of a foreign state," he said.
Poroshenko quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin and declared that according to Putin the Russian Federation rests on two pillars: the Russian Orthodox Church and nuclear arms.
The Ukrainian president called it abnormal that the Russian Security Council, headed by Putin, gathered in the Kremlin in order to discuss how to defend the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"My dears, there is nothing here for you to do. There is nothing for your church to do, nothing for your armed forces to do, nothing for your weaponry to do. Go back home, to Russia." Poroshenko summarized.
Poroshenko also compared the appearance of an independent church in Ukraine with the proclamation of an independent country 27 years ago. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 November 2018)
MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE THINKS THAT POROSHENKO'S STATEMENT ABOUT PLACE OF RPTs POINTS MILLIONS OF UKRAINIAN CITIZENS TO DOOR
Interfax-Religiia, 8 November 2018
The Moscow patriarchate expressed surprise with regard to a declaration of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko about the place of the Russian Orthodox Church in his country.
"When Mr. Poroshenko says that the Russian Orthodox Church has nothing to do in Ukraine, what does he have in mind? Whom? There exists one canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine. And it is called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Its primate is His Beatitude Meteropolitan Onufrey and its clergy and laity are citizens of Ukraine. Does the Ukrainian president have them in mind? Millions of Ukrainian citizens?" the head of the synod's Department for Relations of Church and Society and News Media, Vladimir Legoida, wrote on Thursday in his telegram-channel.
Yesterday P. Poroshenko declared at an international conference in Kiev that the Russian Orthodox Church "has nothing to do" in Ukraine. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 November 2018)
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