President Petro Poroshenko emphasizes that unity and strengthening of Ukraine are promoted not only by the Armed Forces and decentralization, but also by the Ukrainian language, quotas on television and radio, as well as the position on Ukrainian books, theater, art and schools.
"I pray to God and I hope for God's grace that one more factor in the unity of the country will be the Autocephalous Orthodox Ukrainian Church, the Tomos, which we are looking forward to receive from the Ecumenical Patriarch," the President said in the interview to Zhytomyr TV channel "CK1", answering the questions about the attempts by the aggressor to undermine the unity of Ukrainians.
Answering the clarifying question about the exact date of receiving the Tomos, the Head of State said: "I have made and make a huge amount of efforts. Half a year ago, nobody believed that we would come so close to the Tomos in such a short time. Ukraine returns to its Mother Church - the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople".
The President added: "We do not transform any of the churches into the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. We create, and more precisely restore the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church 300 years after, because this is one of the main attributes of an independent state," the Head of State said. He noted that it fully corresponds to the Orthodox canons.
The President recalled that in April, after the meeting with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the Head of State requested for granting Ukraine the Tomos for the restoration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and this appeal was supported by the Verkhovna Rada, regional and district councils. In turn, hierarchs of Orthodox churches supported the creation of the Autocephalous Orthodox Ukrainian Church in their appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch.
"If we pray and fight, Ukraine will get the Tomos and Autocephalous Orthodox Church earlier than anyone may expect," the Head of State said. He added: "As in the case of NATO and the European Union, we will not ask the permission of Putin or Kirill, how to pray, what churches to visit, where to move and how to live".
“We are better off without them,” the President concluded.
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