Cyril Hovorun names three factors why the Ukrainian Church received autocephaly in 2018

The well-known theologian Archimandrite Cyril Hivirun believes that the main role in this was played by three factors. He said this in an interview with "Livyy Bereh".

"First – the UOC-MP acted at that time as a rather pro-Ukrainian church, trying to demonstrate that it met the criteria of an autocephalous church. My idea was that the UOC-MP should become a platform for creating an autocephalous church.

The second factor is the stubbornness of Filaret, who himself wanted to lead this process. In 2018, he eventually lost, but in 2008, he didn't.

And the third factor is political. In 2018, we already had an annexation and a war, which was a crucial moment to convince the Phanar, Ukrainian society and now local churches to recognize the OCU," the theologian said.

The autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, in his opinion, was only a matter of time.

"And it was also necessary that additional prerequisites arose. The first premise: after the death of Metropolitan Volodymyr, with the election of Metropolitan Onufriy, the UOC-MP lost its reputation as a pro-Ukrainian church, open and ready to cooperate with other faiths and society. It locked itself in the capsule. One gets the impression that for Metropolitan Onufriy, the smaller the church and the more isolated it is, the better. He actually liberated a huge territory in the Ukrainian public space, retreating from all the positions previously occupied by the UOC-MP under Volodymyr. This, in fact, created the prerequisites for the creation of a new structure, an autocephalous one, which occupied part of this space. The other part was occupied by the Greek Catholic Church.

The second factor is that Filaret has become more compliant. And the third, as for me, the most important factor is that there was a war," he said.

"Regarding the political factor.it seems to me that President Yushchenko – this is an exclusively subjective assessment – embodied the dream or program of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church more consistently, more persistently and sincerely than President Poroshenko, but less skillfully. Poroshenko actively participated in the campaign to grant autocephaly literally in 2017-2018. In 2014-2016, he was strongly encouraged to do something for autocephaly. And he did almost nothing – unlike Yushchenko, who did this all his cadence. President Poroshenko joined this process virtually the day before...", Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun added.