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Rally in support of breakaway Ukrainian church held in Kiev

According to the organizers, the rally drew some 30,000 people. However, Ukrainian media reports said not more than 5,000 people came to the square

KIEV, October 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and head of Ukraine’s non-canonical church Filaret attended a rally in support of a breakaway Ukrainian church on Sunday on Kiev’s Sofiyskaya Square.

According to the organizers, the rally drew some 30,000 people. However, Ukrainian media reports said not more than 5,000 people came to the square. Most participants of the rally arrived by buses.

The rally lasted for just over an hour and then people started leaving the square.

On October 11, a Synod meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to "proceed to the granting of Autocephaly (self-governance) to the Church of Ukraine." The Synod revoked a legally binding status of the 1686 letter, which empowered the Patriarch of Moscow to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev. In addition, the Synod decided to re-establish the office of the Stavropegion of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Kiev, which means its head would be subordinate directly to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Moreover, the Synod lifted anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine - Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate, and Makary of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church and other local Orthodox Churches view these decisions as hostile and illegitimate and warn they might trigger a split within the Eastern Orthodox Church.

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