Moscow realizes that the Tomos is imminent, UOC-KP speaker projects further steps by the Kremlin

Spokesman of the UOC-KP, Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, summed up on his Facebook page the recent developments in Phanar connected with the visit of the UOC-MP delegation and predicted the further steps of Moscow.

Main news from the Phanar after last weekend development:

1. The process of granting the Tomos of autocephaly has been launched - and it will not be canceled. The question is not whether the Tomos of autocephaly will be granted or not, as it will happen a little bit sooner or later, with the support of the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch on the part of a bigger or smaller number of Local Churches.

2. If the Patriarchate of Constantinople did not count on being able to bring to a logical conclusion the matter of Tomos issuance - it would not have begun this process. Hysterical fits on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate (quite expected) will not stop the matter - as they did not stop the convening and holding of the Pan-Orthodox Council. No retreat under Moscow's pressure in both cases is possible, because it's a defeat.

3. Vadym Novynsky and his accompanying persons did not obtain what was the purpose of their visits - assurances that there would be no “autocephaly”, that “only one canonical Church is recognized” (i.e. the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine), “the condemnation of schismatics,” etc. On the contrary, they heard that, after nearly three decades in Ukraine, the hierarchs of the MP were not able to solve the problem of church separation - the Ecumenical Patriarchate can no longer remain inactive in this case, because the order of things is violated in the whole Orthodoxy, and the case concerns millions of believers who apply to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to interfere.

The fact that Moscow allowed V. Novynsky to go to Phanar for negotiations (without the permission of Moscow none of the delegates would do it) was a sign that he was aware that the Tomos was approaching, and that all previous actions by the Moscow Patriarchate could not stop the process.

Having assured, after the negotiations, that the Tomos is inevitable, Moscow, with a high degree of probability, will choose one of three ways of responding (which will be seen in the near future):

1. Further impeding the process with threats of "great schism", prepare for the break-up of relations with Constantinople and cluster all possible forces around it;

2. To maximally procrastinate the process of playing with Phanar in “bad and good policemen”, that is, threatening with the "schism", or offering some form of consent to autocephaly, but “somewhat later.” The goal is to last till the elections in Ukraine in the hope that after them it will be possible already from the side of the pro-Russian authorities to disrupt the process (in Moscow, like in Oppobloc, they are hoping for an election victory or at least a “golden rally” of the pro-Russian forces). This option, judging by comments from the UOC-MP after the trip, is a most probable one;

3. Try to “head” the process by offering an algorithm through the UOC-MP, according to which the autocephalous Ukrainian Church would be based on the UOC-MP, and would remain the satellite of Moscow (as they now have several other Local Churches). Although it is not clear at all, why would Constantinople create with their own hands an additional satellite for Moscow?

That is, in the end - we remain cautious optimists, we work and continue to pray to God for the success of the case.