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BFilaret and President Poroshenko said that Ukrainians would be allowed to continue to worship in churches lined up in Moscow.
"The unification will only be voluntary," Filaret told reporters, saying that he did not want to give Moscow "an excuse to interfere in our internal affairs".
Bartholomew on Thursday called on supporters to "avoid the appropriation of churches, monasteries and other properties".
But creating an independent church in the fractured religious landscape of Ukraine could prove thorny despite calls for tolerance.
The Filaret Patriarchate in Kiev has already claimed the monastery of the Kiev Caves (11th century), a popular destination for tourists and pilgrims, and the Monastery of the Holy Dormition in Pochayiv, both under the control of the aligned church in Moscow.
The Russian church suffered a major schism in the 17th century, when the reforms of Patriarch Nikon were rejected by many members of the clergy. To this day, remote communities of old believers continue to follow the rituals that the dominant church abolished centuries ago.
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