On February 9, in the building of the Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, in Kyiv, a regular session of the Hierarchical Council of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) will be held.
Vicar of Kyiv of UAOC Bishop Volodymyr (Cherpak) of Vyshhorod and Podillia noted in a commentary to RISU that the bishops are to hear the report of the committee which conducted official negotiations with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate regarding the possible unification. After the report, the hierarchs are to pass a decision.
“The members of the committee will report on the executed work and submit their proposals. Our bishops already discussed the question of unification, but the committee did not report to the council yet. So whether the negotiations with the Kyivan Patriarchate are to stop or not will depend on the result of the report of the committee at the council,” he said.
According to Bishop Volodymyr, the committee, which is to report to the council next Thursday, was headed by Metropolitan Andrii (Abramchuk) of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Let us remind that on September 14, Patriarch Filaret of the UOC-KP agreed with Metropolitan Mefodii of the UAOC to start a dialogue on the unification of the two churches. The unification process failed. The UOC-KP accused the UAOC of setting an unacceptable condition, namely, the resignation of Patriarch Filaret. The clergy of the UAOC, on the other hand, would like the unification to include also the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.