“Demands of ROC and other Churches to convene the Synaxis on autocephaly of the OCU are groundless, as the decision is already approved,” Yevstratiy Zorya

A number of representatives of local Orthodox Churches suggest to consider the issue of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church at the Synaxis (the meeting of the first hierarchs), but it does not make any decisions, but considers those already made.

In particular, such proposals were expressed by the Russian Orthodox Church and the hierarchy targeted at it, according to Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) of Chernihiv and Nizhyn.

“But according to established order, a Synaxis can only be convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch, who issued the Tomos of autocephaly of the Church in Ukraine, which states that the OCU holds the 15th place in the diptych and participates in all the All-Orthodox assemblies,” he said.

According to Yevstratiy, in particular, if a Synaxis is convened, it will be only with the participation of Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine of the OCU.

“Will Moscow Patriarch and his associates agree to take part in it in such circumstances? If they do not change their position on Ukrainian autocephaly, they obviously will not agree,” he assumed.

Thus, the archbishop stressed that the Synaxis, by definition, could not resolve issues that arise from the proclamation of the Tomos of Ukrainian autocephaly, but may only show that these issues were resolved prior to its holding.

He also suggested that a "Cretan" variant is possible, when the heads of several Churches will not arrive to the Synaxis, which will give them the reason not to recognize its decisions.

Archbishop Zorya drew attention to the inconsistency of the position of the Antiochian Patriarchate which, prior to the Pan-Orthodox Council on Crete, demanded to resolve the dispute with the Jerusalem Patriarch, motivated its absence at the Council by lack of such a decision.

“And now it proposes to convene the Synaxis to resolve the dispute between Constantinople and Moscow concerning the autocephaly of the Church in Ukraine,” he concluded.