Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has attended a thanksgiving prayer service for receiving the tomos on Autocephaly and on the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) during his trip to Vinnytsia region, the presidential press service said.
Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and all Ukraine, the primate of the OCU, and Metropolitan of Vinnytsia and Bar Simeon led the thanksgiving prayer service at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia, according to the presidential website. The tomos on Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was brought to the cathedral.
After the thanksgiving prayers, the head of state addressed those present in the cathedral and congratulated everybody on holidays, noting that these holidays are special this year.
“Fair days of Christmas are among the happiest in the year. But this year we are celebrating Christmas in a special way because the God presented us a tremendous gift, which many generations of Ukrainians had been praying for. But this is I and you who are happy to witness that […] Even not witnesses, but participants of the process of creating a united, autocephalous, local, and the keyword, Ukrainian holy church,” Poroshenko said.
The president mentioned all of the stages of creating the OCU and thanked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “for resoluteness, courage, faith and wisdom, which he showed when resolving this issue.” “Despite a huge pressure from the Russian Federation, an aggressor country, direct threats, threats to him, threats to the church, he has done that,” Poroshenko said.
