The latest from Kyiv, from the RFE/RL news desk:
Ukraine Orthodox Priests Form Unified Church, Elect Leader
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced a historic church council has agreed on the creation of an independent Orthodox church for Ukraine.
"It happened," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kyiv on December 15.
"This day will go down in history as the sacred day of the creation of the autocephalous local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The day we finally receive our independence from Russia."
Metropolitan Epifaniy was elected by the council to head the new church.
The meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was a crucial step in years of efforts to create a church in Ukraine that is independent of Moscow.
Several thousand people rallied outside the ancient St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv where the meeting had taken place behind closed doors.
Poroshenko has made an independent church a campaign pledge as part of his campaign for reelection in 2019.
"Let's stand and pray for a Ukrainian church to be created today," Poroshenko said as he greeted several of the rally's participants before going into the cathedral.
"The creation of our Church is another declaration of Ukraine's independence and you are the main participants of this historic event," he added.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko’s press secretary, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, posted on Facebook a photo from inside the cathedral where the priests are meeting.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate said on December 13 that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the "first among equals" in the global Eastern Orthodox faith, will hand over a "tomos" -- a decree granting autocephaly, or independence -- to the future head of the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine on January 6.
Ukraine currently has three main Orthodox denominations: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which remained subordinate to Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and two breakaway entities -- the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
Bartholomew announced the decision to recognize Ukraine's request for an autocephalous church in October.
The announcement by Bartholomew, who is considered the leader of the 300-million-strong worldwide Orthodox community, came amid deepening tension over efforts by Ukrainian Orthodox churches to formally break away from Russia’s orbit.
It also prompted the Russian Orthodox Church to announce days later that it was ending its relationship with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in protest.
The developments have added to tensions between Kyiv and Moscow, already high since Russia's 2014 seizure of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists.
The Moscow Patriarchate has announced that its representatives will not attend the December 15 gathering.
Ahead of the meeting, the Russian Orthodox Church called on international leaders to "protect" its followers in Ukraine in the face of what it called official pressure on Moscow-appointed clerics.
BREAKING NEWS: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced a historic church council has agreed on the creation of an independent Orthodox church for Ukraine and has selected a leader for the church.
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