Religion

The Government of Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople have signed an agreement on co-operation and collaboration. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I signed the agreement in Istanbul on Saturday during the official visit of president Poroshenko to Turkey.

"The sides expressed concerns over the difficult situation existing between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Moscow Patriarchate", according to a report carried by the website of the Georgian Patriarchate

Metropolitan Hilarion met Pope Francis and briefed Catholic officials on the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted at its meeting on October 15 in Minsk relating to the dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople regarding Ukraine

A number of Orthodox bishops and clergy who had earlier been considered in schism with the Church have now been embraced back, by a decision of the Synod convened by Patriarch Bortholomew