![Ukraine’s PM meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Ukraine’s PM meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew](https://static.ukrinform.com/photos/2020_12/thumb_files/630_360_1606831750-547.jpeg)
Ukraine’s PM meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
"The granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly opened new prospects for a more harmonious development of Christianity in Ukraine and allowed for meeting spiritual needs of believers belonging to the Byzantine Christianity in full," Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said during the visit to the Patriarchal Church of St. George of the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate, where he met with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Government portal reports.
The Prime Minister thanked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and for supporting the process of its recognition by other local churches.
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“Denys Shmyhal stressed that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is a reliable partner of the state institutions in matters of social and humanitarian service. The state, for its part, supports the active social activity of the church and provides it with full social and economic support within legally justified and possible limits,” the statement reads.
In a conversation with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Prime Minister stressed that an important factor in the development of religious processes in Ukraine was the functioning of the Stauropegia of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Kyiv.
In addition, Denys Shmyhal expressed hope that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew would visit Ukraine at the invitation of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
For his part, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew announced that he would pay an official visit to Ukraine in 2021 on the Independence Day.
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