Ukraine church to hold unification council

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko yesterday announced that a meeting to unify the country’s Orthodox churches will be held in Kiev on December 15, despite protests from Russia. The move is expected to spark fresh tensions with Russia which has raged against allowing the Ukraine Church to sever its historic ties with Moscow. “This council will approve the charter of our new church, this council will elect the primate,” Poroshenko said. The Ukrainian branch of Orthodoxy has been under Moscow’s control for the past 300 years. But in October, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I agreed to recognise the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from the Moscow Patriarchate.