Jerusalem, January 21, 2019
Photo: pravoslavie.ru Though Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko intended to meet with His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem today during his working visit to Israel, the Patriarch ended up canceling the meeting, a source close to the Ukrainian delegation reported to both RIA-Novosti and TASS.
The probable topic of the meeting was the question of the recognition of the new Ukrainian nationalist church by the Jerusalem Patriarchate, which controls the main Christian shrines in the Holy Land.
As OrthoChristian has reported, the Patriarch has been under heavy pressure from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the states of Israel and America to recognize and serve with the new Ukrainian schismatic church created by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Poroshenko, though he did not serve with any schismatic representatives as they had hoped.
“The meeting with the Patriarch will not take place due to Theophilos III’s health,” the source reported.
The meeting was scheduled for 3:00 PM and was to include a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Poroshenko met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin earlier today and has scheduled talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will be present at the signing of the Ukrainian-Israeli agreement on the establishment of a free trade zone. He will return to Ukraine late tonight.
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