Andrii Smyrnov: In times of war, it is hard to imagine the UOC-MP hierarchs appealing to the Moscow Patriarch for autocephaly
Religious scholar, Doctor of Historical Sciences Andrii Smyrnov stated this in a commentary to Channel 24.
Smyrnov also noted that back in 1991, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Exarchate in Ukraine, Filaret, convened a Council at which the participants signed an appeal to the Moscow Patriarch with a request to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church with its elevation to the Patriarchate, but Moscow refused.
“The appeal was signed by all the delegates of the Council, including the current head of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy Berezovsky. Yet, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church categorically opposed the independence of the UOC and even rejected its later request for “canonical autonomy.” In the context of Russia's armed aggression and the ROC's support for the genocidal war against Ukraine, it is hard to imagine a repeated appeal of the UOC-MP hierarchy to the Moscow Patriarch, who, using the words of Pope Francis, has become Putin's “altar boy,” Smyrnov noted.
Andrii Smyrnov also emphasized that now everything depends on the UOC-MP - whether they are ready to begin a long and difficult journey that may result in the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
“Now everything depends on the willingness of the UOC-MP leadership to seek a way out of the canonical impasse. We hope that a certain mechanism or transitional model will be found so that the pro-Ukrainian part of the UOC would first restore communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and then start a dialogue with the OCU on unification. This path will be difficult and long, but there is no alternative to dialogue,” the religious scholar emphasized.
