Orthodox Service In Kyiv Celebrates Ukrainian Church's Independence

The newly independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church held a service in Kyiv on January 7 marking Orthodox Christmas and celebrating their break with the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other top officials attended the ceremony at the St. Sofia Cathedral. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church became independent on January 6 with the handover of a "tomos" of autocephaly, an official church document, to Ukrainian Metropolitan Epifaniy. The development ends more than 330 years of Russian religious control in Ukraine.