Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya), the representative of the OCU, explained why the Russian Orthodox Church's indignation at receiving the Tomos by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is invalid and criticized Moscow's position on this issue.
He told it in an interview with Ukrinform.
"To deny the Tomos, to deny the right of the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant the Tomos of autocephaly is to deny the status quo and question the autocephaly of 10 out of 15 Orthodox Churches. Only the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the Church of Cyprus were established as autocephalous churches during the Ecumenical Councils. All others, including the Russian Church, received this status and were included in diptychs thanks to the acts of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Therefore, to question this order is to question the order that exists in Orthodoxy as a whole," Archbishop Evstratiy stressed.
According to him, the recent visit of the OCU delegation to Istanbul reiterated that the Ukrainian Church is a full-fledged autocephalous Church, which takes part in the liturgical life of Universal Orthodoxy on equal terms.