In Moscow, priests and bishops of the OCU are called "impostors legitimized by Constantinople"

"We have one very simple answer, which we officially voice: these are not priests, these are lay people, people who put on priestly clothes and proclaimed themselves priests. There are also those who have declared themselves bishops and metropolitans, but they do not have canonical ordination. Therefore, they are not priests at all. These are impostors who illegally appropriated Holy Orders, and then they were legitimized by Constantinople. Since Constantinople is now the supreme arbiter for these so-called "OCU churches", it is Constantinople who probably needs to deal with everything that happens there. This has nothing to do with us, it has nothing to do with Canonical orthodoxy," he said.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) is in the United States on July 13-15 to participate in a summit in defense of religious freedom.

"The main purpose of the visit is to participate in the summit in defense of religious freedom, which is being held on July 13-15 in Washington. I have received an invitation to speak at this summit. My speech is scheduled for the 14th," Hilarion said on July 14, RIA Novosti reports.

According to him, meetings are also planned during the summit with a number of current and former congressmen and former US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback. We are not talking about high-profile meetings - for example, with the US Secretary of State.

The visit of the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations to the United States will end on July 15.