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UKRAINE-RELIGION
Head of Ukraine’s new orthodox church enthroned
KIEV, Feb 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The leader of the new independent Ukrainian
Orthodox Church was enthroned in a ceremony in Kiev on Sunday, formalising a
break with the Russian Orthodox Church that has enraged Moscow.
During the three-hour event in the gold-decked 11th-century Saint Sophia
Cathedral, Metropolitan Yepifaniy became head of the Church, having been
elected by bishops last year.
The 40-year-old is a critic of Moscow’s religious influence in Ukraine and
has helped organise humanitarian aid for Kiev’s army in its struggle against
Russian-backed separatist movements.
President Petro Poroshenko, who had promised an independent church ahead of
this year’s presidential election, attended the ceremony along with other top
officials.
Last week, he finally confirmed he was running for re-election in the March
31 poll. Poroshenko described Sunday’s ceremony as the “completion” of the
process to create the Church, in comments carried by Ukrainian TV channels as
part of a live broadcast. The new church would be independent of the state,
he said.
For more than 300 years, the Patriarch of Moscow controlled part of the
Ukrainian Church.
Kiev now considers this influence unacceptable given its ongoing war with
Russia-backed rebels in the east that has already killed around 13,000
people.
The Russian-controlled branch of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has
denounced the establishment of a unified church, breaking ties with the
Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over the issue.
The Constantinople Patriarch’s decision to recognise the Ukrainian Church’s
independence from Russia was a huge blow to Moscow’s spiritual authority in
the Orthodox world.
BSS/AFP/RY/1738 hrs