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On May 21-26, some 130 Ukrainian Orthodox faithful were on pilgrimage to Constantinople, Izmir and Ephesus, according to the Ukrainian religion news website Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ). During their visit to Turkey, the pilgrims handed over the appeals of 50,000 people to the Ecumenical Patriarchate asking it to review the bestowal of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church in terms of the canonical law.
The first 10,000 petitions reached the Fener in early May, the UOJ reported.
In total, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has received some 60,000 petitions against the new Single Local Church in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian faithful, this is a direct interference in church affairs by the state and the so-called “schismatics” of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate.
In April, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew agreed to bestow autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This project became subject of criticism of many experts and scholars claiming that it would only aggravate the conflict between Churches in Ukraine.
The pilgrims who came to the Fener also presented the evidence of the seizures of UOC MP churches by radical nationalist groups and “schismatics” and appealed to the Patriarch for protection.
