Image copyright EPA Image caption Many Ukrainians welcomed Constantinople's ruling earlier this year, holding a prayer in Kiev

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, marking a historic split from Russia.

He said national security depended on "spiritual independence" from Russia.

He was speaking at a special council of orthodox priests in Kiev, where a new leader of the church was selected.

The Russian Orthodox Church cut ties with the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodoxy after it recognised the Ukrainian Church's independence.

Russia also fears that its churches in Ukraine could be seized.

Despite Russia banning priests from the branch of the Church loyal to Moscow from the event, two of its bishops were seen arriving for the council in Kiev.

What happened in Kiev?

The special council was held in the ancient St Sophia's Cathedral - one of Kiev's best known landmarks.

Ukrainian clerics of different Orthodox denominations elected 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy as the leader of the new church.

Epifaniy is now expected to travel to Istanbul on 6 January to receive a special decree, a tomos, granting independence (autocephaly) to the new church from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

"This day will go into history as a sacred day... the day of the final independence from Russia," President Poroshenko told a crowd of thousands outside the cathedral.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Believers gathered outside the cathedral on Saturday

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Orthodox clergymen conducted prayers ahead of the church council

Ahead of the meeting, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called on religious and world leaders to protect believers and clergymen in Ukraine from what he called persecution.

What is the dispute all about?

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been under the Moscow Patriarchate for centuries.

But tensions within the church mounted after Ukraine became independent in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Before Sunday's council in Kiev, there were three Orthodox Church branches in Ukraine:

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate)

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Now, priests from the Kiev Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church become members of the new church - the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The drive for Ukrainian Orthodox independence intensified in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and Russia-backed separatists seized a big swathe of territory in eastern Ukraine.

The Moscow branch of the Ukrainian Church has denied being a tool of the Kremlin, and says it has tried to bring about peace in eastern Ukraine.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption St Sophia's Cathedral, pictured behind its huge bell tower, is one of Kiev's best known landmarks

Earlier this year, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - seen as the first among equals in the world's Orthodoxy - overruled its decision dating back to 1686 to transfer its jurisdiction over Kievan Orthodox churches (known as the Kievan Metropolis) to Moscow.

Now Moscow fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine.

Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world.

The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.

Read more on related topics:</s>Epifaniy is the rector and professor of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy.

Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Pereiaslav and Bila Tserkva Epifaniy (Serhiy Dumenko) has been elected head of the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Epifaniy has been elected at the unification council of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches held at Kyiv's St. Sophia Cathedral, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

He was nominated by the Bishops' Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate on Thursday.

He is the rector and professor of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy.</s>"I congratulate everyone on setting up the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church which has been just created at St. Sophia’s," he said addressing the crowd in Sofiyskaya Square after the end of the ‘unification’ council.

Metropolitan Epiphany of Pereyaslav and Belotserkovsk, who had earlier served as a bishop of the uncanonical Kiev Patriarchate, was elected head of the new church.

Poroshenko recalled the words of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, saying: "As Taras Shevchenko once said Ukraine would not be drinking Moscow’s poison from the Moscow cup."

‘Unification’ council

On Saturday, the St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev hosted a so-called ‘unification’ council held under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and brokered by the Ukrainian authorities.

The council pursued a goal of creating a new local Orthodox Church estranged from the Moscow Patriarchate. The church will be formally granted an autocephalous status, but in fact, it will be under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The council was expected to consider two main issues, namely the new church’s charter and the election of its head.

The organizers planned that representatives of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and two schismatic groups, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, will attend the council. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church turned the invitation down lashing out at the council as illegitimate. On December 7, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod said that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople had no canonical right to convene any church meetings in Ukraine and that "neither the clergy nor the laity have been authorized to represent the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at that meeting."

On Saturday, only two from 90 archbishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church attended the assembly. They are Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vyshnevsky and Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Barsky.

Church crisis in Ukraine

Kiev has attempted to create a Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine independent of the Moscow Patriarchate since 1991. In April 2018, Poroshenko wrote a personal letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople asking for autocephaly for the Ukrainian church.

The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided at its meeting held on October 9-11 to proceed with granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. It revoked the 1686 decision on transferring the Kiev Metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and announced plans to bring it back under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It also reinstated the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Makariy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, to their hierarchical and priestly ranks.

On October 15, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in response to that move that full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was no longer possible.

On November 13, the Council of Bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church held its meeting in Kiev Pechersk Lavra (the Kiev Monastery of the Caves). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced after the meeting it did not recognize Constantinople’s decisions on Ukraine and said it was severing full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church also spoke out against joining the process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine’s church and said it opposed its name change.

On December 5, Poroshenko announced that the so-called unification council to create the Ukrainian autocephalous church would take place on December 15. He said that Patriarch Bartholomew had sent letters to bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church "inviting them to take part in that historic event.".</s>Ukraine on Saturday formally created a new national Orthodox church, breaking away from Russia's influence, as worsening political and military tensions between the two neighbors spills over to religion.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed the decision following a historic synod at Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral when the country's Orthodox Council voted to establish the independent church.

Poroshenko added that Metropolitan Epifany, of the Kiev Patriarchate church, was chosen as head of the new church: "This day will go down in history as the sacred day ... the day of the final independence from Russia," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kiev.

Several thousand people had rallied outside the cathedral ahead of the synod in support of the move, which the Ukrainian president pushed for as part of his 2019 re-election campaign.

Read more: What is the Orthodox Church?

Attending Saturday's synod as a non-voting observer, Poroshenko told senior priests that the new church was "a question of our Ukrainian national security, of our statehood."

Read more: Politics, powers, and struggle over Ukraine's Orthodox church

The founding of a new Ukrainian Orthodox church had been in the works since Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea following a pro-Western uprising in Kyiv.

Moscow has also been widely accused of backing pro-Russian separatists battling the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed 10,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.

A fresh crisis, last month, that saw Russia seize three Ukrainian navy ships and arrest 24 sailors in the waters around Crimea sent relations to new lows.

The church's establishment received a boost in October when the spiritual leader of the global Orthodox Church — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople — recognized Ukraine's independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

In doing so, he revoked a 332-year-old ruling that had placed Ukraine under the Patriarchate of Moscow. That decision led the Russian Orthodox Church to break off all ties with Constantinople, fearing that Kyiv would force Moscow-loyal churches and monasteries into its control.

The Constantinople Patriarchate's leaders — based in Istanbul, Turkey — are widely considered to be the most influential in the global Orthodox hierarchy, which boasts some 300 million followers.

Around half of them, however, are aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is considered to have close ties to the Russian state, especially under President Vladimir Putin's leadership.

Read more: Greece's Orthodox Church and state consider divorce

Despite the support of three Ukrainian church branches, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the Moscow Patriarchate — which comprises most priests, churches, and monasteries, has boycotted the meeting and has recommitted itself to Moscow's dominion. The Russian Orthodox Church still considers Ukraine its territory.

If the attempt to create a unified Ukrainian Church is successful, it would be among the largest in the Orthodox world in terms of numbers of believers. Some 67 percent of Ukraine's 45 million population adheres to one or more strands of Orthodox Christianity.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head the new church, officials said.

The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kiev Patriarchate.

The vote, which was held Saturday at a closed-door synod in Kiev's St. Sophia Cathedral, is certain to anger authorities in Russia.

"God heard our appeals and gave us this anticipated unity," Epiphanius told a crowd of thousands who had gathered outside the cathedral. He stressed that the new church's doors would be open to all, and encouraged Ukrainians to rally behind it.

The newly formed community is now expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches. It has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has made the creation of a new church a key campaign issue, attended the synod as a non-voting observer.

"Ukraine was not, is not, and will not be the canonical territory of the Russian church," Poroshenko told the gathering of Orthodox officials on Saturday. He added that an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security.

"This is a question of Ukrainian statehood," Poroshenko said. "We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the (Russian) empire."

Poroshenko said he would travel with Epiphanius to Istanbul in January to receive an official Tomos from the head of global Orthodoxy granting the new church independence.

Representatives of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches attended the synod, but only two from the branch loyal to Moscow showed up.

The Russian Orthodox Church has protested vigorously against Kiev's attempts to create an independent church. One Russian bishop — Metropolitan Hilarion in Volokolamsk — on Saturday compared the two representatives of the Moscow-backed church to Judas.

A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed Saturday that the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church.

The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics.

Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected.

As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several Ukrainian cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests in for questioning.</s>Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head that new church — a move that could exponentially raise tensions with neighboring Russia.

The vote, held at a closed-door synod in Kiev's St. Sophia Cathedral, is the latest in a series of confrontations between Ukraine and authorities in Russia, including President Vladimir Putin's government. Ahead of the vote, the Russian Orthodox Church called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect Orthodox believers in Ukraine.

The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kiev Patriarchate.

"God heard our appeals and gave us this anticipated unity," Epiphanius told a crowd of thousands who had gathered outside the cathedral on Saturday to hear the news. He stressed that the new church's doors would be open to all, and encouraged Ukrainians to rally behind it.

Still spiritual leaders attending Saturday's synod couched their efforts to create an independent church in patriotic rhetoric. Father Sergei Dmitriev said — given Ukraine's ongoing conflicts with Russia — "we should have our own church, not an agent of the Kremlin in Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has made the creation of a new church a key campaign issue, attended the synod Saturday as a non-voting observer.

"Ukraine was not, is not, and will not be the canonical territory of the Russian church," Poroshenko told the gathering, adding that creating an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security.

"This is a question of Ukrainian statehood," Poroshenko said. "We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the (Russian) empire."

Representatives of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches attended the synod in Kiev, but only two from the branch loyal to Moscow showed up. One Russian bishop — Metropolitan Hilarion in Volokolamsk — on Saturday compared those two representatives of the Moscow-backed church to Judas, the biblical betrayer of Jesus.

The newly formed community is expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been damaged by Russia's 2014 annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and its support for armed separatists fighting the government in eastern Ukraine. The church schism and a Nov. 25 naval clash in the Black Sea in which Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and detained 24 Ukrainian crewmen have caused them to deteriorate further.

Saturday's religious rupture from the Russian Orthodox Church is a potent — possibly explosive — mix of politics, religious faith and national identity.

Since the late 1600s, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine had been a wing of the Russian Orthodox Church rather than being ecclesiastically independent. Many Ukrainians, however, resented the implication that Ukraine was a vassal of Russia.

The move Saturday raises deep concerns about what will happen to the approximately 12,000 churches in Ukraine that were under the Moscow Patriarchate.

In recent years, about 50 churches in Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate have been forcibly seized and transferred to the Kiev Patriarchate, according to Metropolitan Antony Pakanich.

Poroshenko said Saturday he would travel with Epiphanius to Istanbul in January to receive a Tomos — an official document — from the head of global Orthodoxy that grants the new church independence.

The Ukrainian leader promised "to respect those who decide, for one reason or another," to remain with the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church — and also promised to protect those who choose to leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the new church.

A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed Saturday that the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church.

Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected.

Dmitriev, a Ukrainian army priest, was once loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate but changed his allegiance to the Kiev Patriarchate after the Russian-affiliated church began refusing to hold funerals for Ukrainian soldiers who died fighting in eastern Ukraine.

As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several Ukrainian cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests in for questioning.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who has from time to time exhibited nationalist sympathies, lashed out at Putin for Ukraine's bid for religious autonomy.

"What was forged over centuries was destroyed by Putin and his idiots in four years," Navalny wrote on Twitter. "Putin is an enemy of the Russian world."</s>Ukraine has created an Orthodox church of its own, proclaiming “independence from Moscow.” While the majority of its hierarchs represented schismatic “churches,” Kiev authorities have hailed a supposed “unity” they have achieved.

The so-called “unity council” took place on Saturday in Kiev, with the country’s president Petro Poroshenko and other top officials in attendance. The overwhelming majority of participants represented two non-canonical entities – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the self-styled ‘Kiev Patriarchy’ and the so-called Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church. The two unrecognized entities have announced voluntary dissolution ahead of the event.

Just two hierarchs from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy participated in event, metropolitan bishops Simeon and Aleksandr. The Church as a whole refused to partake in the gathering, denouncing it as schismatic.

Metropolitan bishop Simeon even ran for the post of the head of the new entity, yet lost to ‘metropolitan’ Epiphany, who had been a hierarch within the unrecognized Kiev Patriarchate.

The head of the schismatic entity –self-styled ‘patriarch’ Filaret– has received the lifetime title of ‘Honorary Patriarch’ within the new structure. The title appears to be not without clout, since it’s established in the charter of the new church, which was adopted at the gathering as well.

It was not immediately clear what exact wording the document contains, since it was reportedly being actively negotiated until the last minute. The draft variant, however, which was unveiled earlier this month, made the new church fully subordinate to the Constantinople Patriarchate, regardless of all the talk about “independence.”

Constantinople has already expressed its support for the new religious entity, confirming it will recognize it officially in early January, which likely means the adopted charter suits Patriarch Bartholomew well.

The gathering, however, was swiftly denounced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which branded its decisions to be “void.”

“The non-canonical gathering … under general the guidance of a layman and the country’s head, as well as a foreigner, who doesn’t know the local language, has picked a non-canonical ‘bishop’ to become an equally non-canonical ‘primate,’” deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate, Protoiereus Nikolay Balashov, said, adding that the whole event meant “nothing” to the Church.

A similar opinion was voiced by the Belarusian Orthodox Church – subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate – which ruled out any official contacts with the new Ukrainian entity, calling it “evidently schismatic.”</s>Ukraine elected the head of a newly unified Orthodox Church this weekend, a move that the nation's president hailed as an important safeguard against future Russian aggression.

The church aims for independence from the Russian Orthodox Church, and Saturday's election is just one step in a process that could take decades.

Nearly 200 bishops, priests and other church officials elected 39-year-old Metropolitan Epiphanius on Saturday as the Ukrainian church's head.

"Today is a truly historic event," Metropolitan Epiphanius said, according to The New York Times, "We were able to overcome various temptations, disagreements and unite in one church."

Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, said the creation of an independent, national church is essential for national security because Russia is using churches in Ukraine as tools to spread propaganda and provide support for Russian fighters. Poroshenko is up for re-election next year, and critics argue his push for an autonomous church is a campaign ploy to bolster support.

On Saturday, quoting a national poet, Poroshenko said that "Ukraine will no longer drink Moscow poison from the Moscow cup," and called the election of the church's head "the final acquisition of independence from Russia," reports the Times.

The Times reports that Ukraine's split from the Russian Orthodox church threatens Moscow's "longstanding effort" to portray itself as the protector of all 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. Ukraine's churches have been beholden to Moscow for centuries, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, have "pursued a 'Russian World' alliance of states bound to Moscow by tradition, culture and religion." The Russian Orthodox Church could lose 30 to 40 percent of its 150 million-person membership in the split, according to the Times.

Russia has responded to attempts to create an independent, unified church in Ukraine with condemnation, comparing it to the great schism of 1054 that divided western and eastern Christianity.

The Kiev Patriarchate began after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "It favors European integration and champions an independent church but the Moscow Patriarchate denounces it as schismatic," reports Reuters.

Religious divisions in Ukraine deepened and support for the Kiev Patriarchate grew after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

"That which was created over hundreds of years was destroyed by Putin and his idiots in four years," Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition figure, wrote on Twitter. "Putin is the enemy of the Russian World."

In the run up to this weekend's election of an independent church leader, Ukrainian security services raided several Moscow-backed churches.

According to Reuters, Ukraine "worries Russia is using the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to incite tensions as cover to invade."

"The deliberate instigation by the Russian special services of inter-church conflicts in Ukraine, to be combined with provoking direct acts of terrorism, may become a pretext for open military invasion by the Russian Federation's armed forces of our country," Vasyl Hrytsak, the chief of Ukraine's security service, said, according to Reuters.

The church split comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Last month, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 soldiers and security officers traveling through the Kerch strait between Russia and disputed Crimea.

Over the weekend, the Times reported, "Ukrainian officials have been raising alarms about what they say is a huge buildup of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces along their border that could signal preparations for an invasion."

Epiphanius is scheduled to travel next month to Istanbul to receive an official order granting autonomy to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Istanbul is the historical seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and gave its backing to the establishment of an independent, unified Orthodox church in Ukraine last October.</s>MINSK, Belarus — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the Pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics.

Ukraine's Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian Church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent church.

The newly formed community would then be expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox churches that has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church.

The Russian Church said on Friday that its Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the UN secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine.

Merkel's spokesperson and the German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said they didn't immediately have any information on the letter.

As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests for questioning.

Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected.

Kirill's letter accused the Ukrainian government of hate speech and pressuring the clerics to take part in the Saturday gathering.

"The numerous instances of discrimination against the Ukrainian Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) give us the reason to fear far worse infringements of the rights and legitimate interests of Orthodox believers," the letter said.

The Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Church said on Friday that the security services forcibly delivered one senior cleric to Kyiv, reportedly for a conversation with the president.</s>Russian Orthodox church calls on UN for help in Ukraine

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics.

Ukraine's Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian Church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent church.

The newly formed community would then be expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches that has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church.

The Russian Church said on Friday that its Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine.

Merkel's spokeswoman and the German foreign ministry spokesman said they didn't immediately have any information on the letter.

As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests for questioning.

Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected.

Kirill's letter accused the Ukrainian government of hate speech and pressuring the clerics to take part in the Saturday gathering.

"The numerous instances of discrimination against the Ukrainian Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) give us the reason to fear far worse infringements of the rights and legitimate interests of Orthodox believers," the letter said.

The Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Church said on Friday that the security services forcibly delivered one senior cleric to Kiev, reportedly for a conversation with the president.

In Kiev, about 100 people led by a Moscow-affiliated cleric were holding prayers near the Ukrainian parliament Friday morning to protest the creation of a new church.

Some voiced fears that authorities will seize churches from the communities under the Moscow patriarchate and give them to the new church.

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declares the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a new branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, separate from the Russian Orthodox Church, after Ukrainian clergy elected Metropolitan Epiphanius I as the head of the new church.