President Petro Poroshenko announced the creation of the local autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine on Sofiiska square in Kyiv on December 15 night.
“I congratulate all of you with the creation of the local autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which has just happened at St. Sophia’s Cathedral,” the president said in his address to the people who gathered on the square near St Sophia’s Church in Kyiv.
The people hailed his announcement, shouting “Glory! Glory! Glory!”
The president said Ukraine has walked a long way to this great event and the decision of the Unification Assembly was long since awaited by the people who came to Sofiiska Square.
He said that December 15 will be written in the history of Ukraine as a sacred day—the day of the creation of the local autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the day when Ukraine obtained its final independence of Russia.
Poroshenko said that the state will not interfere in the Church’s affairs.
