Chair Parubiy invites His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I to soon speak at Verkhovna Rada
17 December 2018, 11:38
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy invited His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I to come to Ukraine and speak at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Opening the meeting of the Conciliation Board, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy congratulated on Monday everyone on the birth of the Single Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"On Saturday, December 15, the long-awaited Local Orthodox Unification Council took place, and we received our longed-for Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church. I am proud that at the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I was a participant of this historic council," said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
This council, reminded A.Parubiy, had ensued from the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on June 16, 2016.
The head of parliament expressed his gratitude to all the members of the council: "Time will pass, and we shall remember this historic day. All my congratulations to the newly elected Primate of the Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the Metropolitan Epiphanius, and I wish him inspiration in his ministration".
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also expressed his gratitude to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for his fatherly care over the Ukrainian people, for his courage and prayer, since, according to A. Parubiy, "it is just difficult to imagine the incredible pressure that Moscow has been exerting upon the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew".
"Special thanks to the Exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine - bishops Emmanuel, Daniel and Hilarion, who have made an incredibly difficult affair. And their role during the council was truly decisive and stabilizing”.
A.Parubiy informed he had been invited by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to come to the Phanar on January 6 to witness the transfer of the Tomos to Autocephaly to the Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
A.Parubiy confirmed his invitation to His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I to come to Ukraine and speak at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. "I am convinced that we must honour this outstanding, courageous person who has been inscribed in the history of Ukraine for good and all," said Andriy Parubiy.
"The question of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is an issue that has gone far beyond just religion. This is a point of Ukraine’s national security. We have broken Moscow’s spiritual shackles for ever. Russia, an aggressor country, no longer has a monopoly right to interfere with the spiritual life of Orthodox Ukrainians," stressed the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament A. Parubiy and then emphasized:
"The day of the local council is another day of the establishment of the Ukrainian State’s Independence".