WASHINGTON – The United States considers the Ecumenical Patriarch as a voice of religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue and supports the followers of Ukrainian autocephaly, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
“The United States respects the ability of Ukraine’s Orthodox religious leaders and followers to pursue autocephaly according to their beliefs. We respect the Ecumenical Patriarch as a voice of religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue,” Nauert said in her statement posted on the U.S. Department of State on Sept. 25.
The United States maintains unwavering support for Ukraine, which, according to Nauert, “charts its own path and makes its own decisions and associations, free of external interference.”
She said that the U.S. “strongly supports religious freedom, including the freedom of members of groups to govern their religion according to their beliefs and practice their faiths freely without government interference.”
