Ukrainian MPs agree to hand over St. Andrew’s Church in Kiev to Constantinople Patriarchate

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has agreed to hand over the St. Andrew’s Church in the capital Kiev for the permanent use of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The move proposed by President Petro Poroshenko was backed by 235 MPs on Thursday, UNIAN reported. During the first vote, the parliament did not get enough votes, but later the Verkhovna Rada passed the document immediately in the first reading and in its whole as a law. As “a religious state-owned building,” the church will be handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for “religious services, rites, ceremonies and processions.” The handover does not entail its exclusion from the list of objects of immovable cultural heritage of the National Sanctuary Complex “Sophia of Kiev.” The parliament’s move follows the break of relations between the Moscow and Constantinople Patriarchates.