of voters from the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko endorsed wanting one Orthodox Church under the Kyiv Patriarchate. On 15 December 2018, members of the existing Ukrainian Orthodox churches (the UOC-KP, the UAOC and parts of the UOC-MP) voted through their representatives (bishops) to unite into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the basis of complete canonical independence. They elected their primate and adopted a charter for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Metropolitan Epiphanius of the UOC-KP, who had been chosen on 13 December by the UOC-KP as its only candidate, and was considered as Filaret's right arm and protégé, was elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine by the unification council on 15 December 2018 after the second round of voting. On 1 January 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew confirmed his intention to grant the tomos of autocephaly to Metropolitan Epiphany on 6 January 2019, the day of Christmas Eve according to the old Julian calendar. On 5 January 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Metropolitan Epiphanius celebrated a Divine Liturgy in St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul; the tomos was signed thereafter, also in St. George's Cathedral. The tomos "has come into force from the moment of its signing". The signing of the tomos officially established the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. President Poroshenko traveled to Istanbul to attend the signing ceremony. After the tomos was signed, Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew made an address to Metropolitan Epiphanius. President Poroshenko and Metropolitan Epiphanius also made speeches. On 6 January, after a Liturgy celebrated by Metropolitan Epiphanius and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew read the tomos of the OCU and then gave it to Metropolitan Epiphanius. President Poroshenko was present during the signing and handing over of the tomos. On 9 January 2019, the tomos was brought back to Istanbul so that all the members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate could sign the tomos. The tomos has now been fully ratified, and will be returned again to Kyiv where it will remain permanently. The representative of the press service of the OCU, priest Ivan Sydor, said the tomos was valid after the signature of the Ecumenical Patriarch, "but according to the procedure, there must also be the signatures of those bishops who take part in the synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate." Former press secretary of the UOC-KP, , declared the Ecumenical Patriarch recognized the OCU by signing the tomos of autocephaly and