Several thousand Ukrainians rallied outside one of Kiev's main cathedrals Saturday ahead of a historic synod expected to establish an Orthodox church independent from Russia.
Ukrainian priests were to meet in Kiev's 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral to work towards founding the church, in what Kiev authorities hope will be a further step out of Russia's orbit.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko briefly came to the rally before going into the cathedral, where he is expected to attend the synod.
"Let's stand and pray for a Ukrainian church to be created today," he said as he greeted several of the rally's participants.
He has made an independent Church a campaign pledge as he looks ahead to an unpredictable election next year.
"The people have been waiting for this. Our Ukrainian church should finally be independent from Moscow," 65-year-old Mykhaylo Khalepyk, who travelled to Kiev from the southern Kherson region, told AFP.
Vitaliya Popovych, who also came to the rally, said she hoped Ukraine will have a new independent church "that will have a pro-state position."
In Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church dismissed the synod as uncanonical. Vladimir Legoida, a spokesman for the Moscow church, told Russian state television that the Kiev synod has "no church, religious or evangelical meaning" and that it will have "no canonical consequences."
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