If Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky) wanted to bring the UOC-MP to autocephaly, Moscow would not have been able to prevent him.
Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, who was recently stripped of his holy rank by the Russian Orthodox Church, said it in an interview with Glavcom.
"Everything depends on Metropolitan Onufriy. If he had a supergoal of gaining freedom and had a roadmap for achieving it, Moscow would not be able to stop him. But he has no such goal. And in general, it is not clear which of his actions are being held back by Moscow, whether it hinders him at least in something (except for the image in the eyes of obvious opponents)," he said.
According to him, neither Metropolitan Onufriy nor the bishops want autocephaly.
"Other hierarchs see this behavior of their metropolitan and do not put pressure on him in the direction of autocephaly. This means that they are not under such pressure from their clergy, sponsors, and parishioners. And thus you can forget about Moscow now. This is a question about Ukraine itself, about a significant number of its citizens. If these millions do not have a request for autocephaly, is it their fault or guilt? It doesn't cause any inconvenience for them. The Ukrainian political and ecclesiastical situation is quite conducive, if not to the implementation, then at least to the voicing of such a request. But neither I in Moscow nor Metropolitan Onufriy in Kyiv could hear such voices from inside the Church. And this is not Moscow's fault," said Andrey Kuraev.
When asked about the authority and influence of the Primate of the UOC-MP on the Russian Orthodox Church, Kuraev said that Metropolitan Onufriy was expected to purify the Church.
"There were no high-profile scandals related to it. But still, many people hoped for the purification of the Church. However, all the" Sabodanites " (bishops who ruled during the lifetime of the head of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), remained in their places. The same notorious Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail. There are no hints of purification...
The criteria by which people ascend to the heights of episcopal power are still both strange and completely intransparent. As before, the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine is eating up its own future," emphasized Andrey Kuraev.