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No reason to believe UOC-MP stops being ROC's integral part, - statement of the OCU Synod

31.05.2022, 16:27

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine welcomes and supports all efforts aimed at the final withdrawal of the Church in Ukraine from subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, considering this subordination non-canonical, forcefully imposed and detrimental to Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

This is said the Statement of the Holy Synod of the UOC (OCU) on the recent events in the Moscow Patriarchate’s jurisdiction in Ukraine (UOC).

The OCU notes that, based on the publicly available documents, it cannot be stated with confidence that the UOC-MP has ceased to be an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the same time, the Synod of the OCU is pleased that the UOC-MP agrees about the need for a dialogue between the two Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine.

"On our part, we reiterate that such a dialogue should begin without preconditions or ultimatums. We are looking forward to explicit proposals from the other side regarding the first steps in the dialogue and the appointment of persons responsible for conducting the dialogue," the document says.

"We regret the decision of the Assembly on May 27 to approve all previous decisions, by which, following the schismatic actions of the Moscow Patriarchate, the jurisdiction of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine) severed communication with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Church of Cyprus and the Church of Greece. This, as well as the form of commemoration of Primates at the Liturgy, which Metropolitan Onufriy chose last Sunday, de facto confirmed the dependence on the decisions and position of the Moscow Patriarchate," the OCU notes.

The hierarchs of the OCU also express "disappointment" that the Council of the UOC-MP failed to find the right words to condemn the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the position of Russian Patriarch Kirill.

"The expressions chosen in the text of the resolutions are too short and soft compared to the tragedy that our people are experiencing. Also, not a single word was said about condemning and separating from the Russian World ideology – a heretical ethnophyletic teaching and a cornerstone in Russia's justification of the war against Ukraine," the authors of the Statement note.

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