Metropolitan Sofroniy (Dmitruk)of Cherkasy and Kaniv revealed how signatures under the statement of the episcopate of the UOC (MP) against autocephaly were collected.
Metropolitan Sofroniy (Dmitruk)of Cherkasy and Kaniv revealed how signatures under the statement of the episcopate of the UOC (MP) against autocephaly were collected.
“I do not know or have ever heard about the statement ... I signed that I was present. All the members who were present put their signatures as those present. Bu the fact that any statement was drafted – It did not happen in my presence, maybe it was written later,” said the hierarch in an interview with Channel 5.
The name of Metropolitan of Cherkasy is on the list of 72 signatories of the statement on the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP). According to this message, all the hierarchs present at the meeting allegedly unanimously adopted the following statement: “The existing canonical status is quite sufficient for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to fruitfully perform its mission among the people of Ukraine. Any attempts to change this status will only result in the restriction of the rights and freedoms that our Church has, that is the right of broad autonomy. Moreover, these attempts will not heal, but only deepen the schism both in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and in the Ukrainian society as a whole.”
As reported, after the episcopate's declaration, the priests and lay representatives of the UOC wrote to Patriarch Bartholomew a letter about the anti-Ukrainian activities of the hierarchs.