All members of the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople must sign the tomos of authocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Andriy Yurash, the director of the Ukrainian Culture Ministry’s department of religions and interethnic relations, said.
“The tomos will be displayed so that everyone who wishes may come and see this unique document until the evening (on Monday). (..) In the near future, it will return to Istanbul, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, because at present it was signed only by the Ecumenical Patriarch [Bartholomew],” Yurash said during a Christmas liturgy at the St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv broadcast on Ukrainian television channels on Monday.
“All members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Holiest Synod should sign it later. The Synod will convene just in two days to do that. Afterwards, the tomos will return to Ukraine for good and will be under special protection,” the Ukrainian official said.
As reported, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius (Epifaniy) of Kyiv and All Ukraine, received the tomos from Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul on January 6.
Patriarch Bartholomew signed the tomos on Saturday, January 5.
On Monday, Metropolitan Epiphanius and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko brought the scroll with the tomos to St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv for the Christmas liturgy.
Following the liturgy, the scroll was moved to St. Sophia’s Cathedral’s refectory church for public viewing.
On January 7, hundreds of people gathered in St. Sophia’s Square to watch the broadcast of the holiday service on a big screen and see the tomos scroll.
