Constantinople, November 29, 2018
spzh.news The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople ended its session today. As the Patriarchate previously announced it would, the date for the “unification council,” whereby a new church will be created in Ukraine, was reportedly set during this session.
According to a report from the Greek portal orthodoxia.info, the council will be held in December and will be headed by Metropolitan Emmanuel of Gaul, a hierarch of the Patriarchate.
Further, according to the Patriarchate’s official Facebook page, the text of the new church’s charter was drafted already by the Synod of Constantinople at this latest session. The Patriarchate’s communique, however, says nothing about the date of the council.
According to orthodoxia.info, the charter will be presented by an Exarch of Constantinople in Kiev. Changes and additions could be made to the text in the future.
The council will then elect the head of the new structure that will combine the schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate” and the schismatic “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.” The elected primate will then be given a tomos of autocephaly from Constantinople.
Constantinople continues to hope that the council will be attended by bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, despite that they have officially stated several times that their canonical status as an autonomous Church is suitable for carrying out their evangelical ministry and that they will not participate in the autocephaly movement and “unification council.”
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