Metropolitan Pavlo: Question of Autocephaly Should Be Postponed for at Least 15-20 Years

The Superior of the Kyiv Cave Monastery Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl stated in an interview to the Russian publication Independent Newspaper that the question of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be postponed "at least for 15-20 years..."

The Superior of the Kyiv Cave Monastery Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl stated in an interview to the Russian publication Independent Newspaper that the question of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be postponed “at least for 15-20 years as this subject is currently dividing the society.”

“Maybe in the future someone will come with a cool head and then the autocephaly will be realized. But now, the whole country would not accept. Even though the idea of the autocephaly itself is not wrong or sinful as claimed by adherents of the Russian World.”

Metropolitan Pavlo also expressed his position on the Statutes of UOC (in the wording of 2007). We live in the independent state of Ukraine; therefore, we should observe its laws. Therefore, the need arose to make some addenda and alterations to the Statutes to bring it in line with the laws of Ukraine,” said the metropolitan, thereby refuting the rumours that the Statute was changed because it did not conform to the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church.