Patriarch Bartholomew signed the act on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the tomos for the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine today in Istanbul.

Prior to the signing of the church act, a prayer service was held, attended by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Pavel Klimkin, and the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany.

Bartholomew received the Ukrainian president and Metropolitan Epiphanius at the residence, after which the tomos was signed in the Church of St. George.

Partiarch Bartholomew said that the Ukrainian people have been waiting for this day for seven centuries.

The spokesman of the Russian Patriarch Alexander Volkov assessed that "Patriarch Bartholomew, by handing over the tomos to the schismatics in Ukraine, has completely distanced himself from world Orthodoxy", reported the Sputnik agency.

The Ukrainian Church was part of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries.

In October, the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to start the process of granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, despite strong opposition from Moscow.

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, in response to this move by the Constantinople partyarchy, severed all ties with it in October.

After the council on December 15 in Kyiv, the creation of the Ukrainian autocephalous church was announced, with Epiphanius Dumenko elected as its head.