Poroshenko tables in parliament bill on use of St. Andrew’s Church in Kyiv

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has registered a bill on the peculiarities of the use of St. Andrew’s Church of the Sophia of Kyiv National Conservation Area, which was initiated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

According to the website of the Ukrainian parliament, bill No. 9208 was registered on October 17 and defined by the president as urgent.

The parliament’s committee on culture and spirituality was chosen to deal with the issue.

According to the explanatory note to the draft law, the document is intended to regulate relations on the transfer to permanent use by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of a religious building – St. Andrew’s Church of the Sophia of Kyiv National Conservation Area, which, according to the authors of this legislative initiative, will speed up the receipt of a tomos (ordinance) – recognition of a local Orthodox church in Ukraine by the global Orthodoxy.

“The state is trying to comprehensively support this process under the current law and create decent conditions for the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the implementation of their most important representative and communicative functions. The full functioning of this representation, among other things, also requires the provision of a proper decent religious building in which the envoys of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will be able to regularly hold church services,” the explanatory note says.

The bill foresees that St. Andrew’s Church (Kyiv, 23 Andriyivsky Descent), which is an object of cultural heritage and a monument of architecture and state property, is transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for permanent use to perform church services, religious ceremonies, and processions.

“The use of St. Andrew’s Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is carried out in compliance with the legislation on the protection of cultural heritage,” the document says.