Archbishop: Members of Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Synod sign public copy of tomos for Ukraine

Members of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate have signed a public copy of tomos about the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) Archbishop Eustraty (born Zoria) has said.

“The public copy for Ukraine has been signed by the members of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. (The original is the text written and signed in the Ecumenical Patriarchate Code, that is, the collected acts …),” he wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Archbishop Eustraty (Zoria) illustrated his post with a photograph of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the members of the Synod with a document.

Earlier, he explained that the document handed on January 6 is a public official copy of tomos for Ukraine. “Technically, tomos is the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Holy and Sacred Synod about autocephaly, embodied to the relevant Code. The letter, sent on Sunday, January 6, is a public official copy for Ukraine,” the archbishop wrote on Facebook.

Members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate signed tomos on the OCU’s autocephaly. The document will return to Ukraine in several days, the TSN said on Wednesday.

As reported, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine, received the tomos of autocephaly from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul on January 6. Patriarch Bartholomew signed tomos on January 5.

On January 7, Metropolitan Epiphanius and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko brought the scroll with the tomos to St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv for the Christmas liturgy.

After that, tomos was returned to Istanbul to be signed by all members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which traditionally meets on the 9th day of each month.

It was also reported that the tomos of autocephaly of the Ukrainian church would be briefly returned to Istanbul so that members of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople could sign it. Only Patriarch Bartholomew has signed it so far.

Representative of the press service of the OCU, priest Ivan Sydor, said that tomos about autocephaly would be returned to Ukraine immediately after it is signed by the participants of the synod, after which it would always be in Kyiv. At the same time, he noted that the document is valid after the signature of the Ecumenical Patriarch, “but according to the procedure, there must also be the signatures of those bishops who take part in the synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate.”