Ukraine church granted independence by Istanbul's Greek Orthodox Patriarchate

Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has granted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly, the patriarchate said in a statement after a meeting late Thursday.

With this decision, the Ukrainian church will be ecclesiastically independent.

Due to the recent discussions on the independence of the church in Ukraine, tensions with the Patriarchate of Moscow, which technically oversees most of Ukraine's Orthodox parishes, heightened even more.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is considered the first among equals and a spiritual leader for the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

The Ukrainian Church is currently split into three bodies, one technically overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow, a fact the Kiev government considers unacceptable given Russia's annexation of Crimea and the ongoing war with Moscow-backed separatists in the east.

Constantinople's Patriarch Bartholomew last month sent two envoys to Kiev, one of whom indicated in a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko that the process of granting independence, or autocephaly, was "on the finishing line."

The Moscow Patriarchate has cut ties with Constantinople over the affair, which it considers an unjust encroachment on its spiritual territory.