Samuel Brownback, U.S. Ambassador-at-large, who oversees the state Department for religious freedom in the world.
Washington strongly supports the ability of Ukrainians “to freely organize their faith as they see fit,” said the spokesman.
U.S. Ambassador for international religious freedom, Samuel Brownback said that Washington is “pleased to see” the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for the creation of new Church structures in Ukraine and believe that they should be implemented.
“At the end of last year I was in Ukraine, where he met with representatives of religious and governmental structures, – said the American diplomat on Thursday, February 7, at a briefing for foreign journalists. – I expressed the position of the United States: “You must have the right to freely choose any organizational structure within a Church or religious body, and as soon as you decide so, we will support him.” That was the position of the Ukrainian people, the government and the Church, supported by the Ecumenical Patriarch”.
According to TASS, during a conversation with journalists Mr. Brownback has repeated several times that Washington supports “is a free decision” of the Ukrainians.
“They should be free to organize their faith as they see fit, and (we – ed.) will support it,” – said the representative of the state Department.
Earlier, on 5 February 2019, Bishop Gedeon (Kharon) gave the Secretary of state of the United States of America Michael Pompeo and congressmen of the government of America official proclamation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which had outlined the facts of discrimination of the canonical Church, the Ukrainian authorities. Representatives of US authorities have promised to understand this situation and to help UOC to organize their own representation in the territory of the United States of America.
As reported by the SPM, in December 2018, the Secretary of State of the United States Michael Pompeo held a telephone conversation with the head of the DNC “Metropolitan” Epiphany, during which he called for respect for “the possibility of all Ukrainians to practice a religion of his choice”.