Ecumenical Patriarch presents independence decree to Ukrainian church leader

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday presented a decree of independence to the head of the nascent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In Istanbul, Patriarch Bartholomew I presented the Tomos, a scroll containing the decree, in a symbolic ceremony sanctifying the Ukrainian church's independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. He signed the decree a day earlier.

Until the decree, the Orthodox church in Ukraine that was a branch of the Russian church was considered legitimate, or "canonical," and two others were regarded as schismatic. The new church unites the two formerly schismatic bodies.

Many Ukrainians resented the status of the Moscow-affiliated church and the push for a full-fledged Ukrainian church was bolstered by fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed rebels.

"The Tomos is one more act declaring the...