Parubiy Expecting Rada To Consider Bill On Transition Of Church Societies Into OCU On December 20

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy expects the Ukrainian Parliament to consider the bill on transition of church societies into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on December 20.

Parubiy said this at the Monday meeting of the Conciliatory Council, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The issue was raised by Deputy Head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction, Oleksii Honcharenko.

The MP said that the faction insisted on considering the bills on the church's name and regulation of the transition of the church societies and protection of property.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate is holding an extraordinary meeting of Synod.

Metropolitan of Kyiv / Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Epiphanius, states that the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, Onufriy, has been deprived of the status of the Kyiv's Metropolitan.

Besides, Epiphanius called on all clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate to join the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On December 15, the ecumenical assembly of the Ukrainian orthodox churches elected Epiphanius as the primate of the OCU.