The head of the DESS: If the UOC-MP wishes to join the OCU, I will offer a fair model

“If the UOC severs the ties and withdraws from the Russian Church, it is free to decide its canonical fate. It can appeal to all Orthodox Churches and say: let us convene an Orthodox Council on the matter,” Yelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Regarding how the UOC-MP can join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine if it wishes, Yelensky said he can draw a model where there will be no “humiliated and offended, winners and losers, where everyone will remain in their own place” if Metropolitan Onufriy addresses him.

In turn, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturaiev, stressed that the issue of granting the UOC a tomos or exarchate was not discussed with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, as he believes it is absolutely impossible.

“I had a conversation with Metropolitan Onufriy... I told him that we do not demand that he join another church. I said that we do not demand to switch to a new calendar, etc., that we are only talking about severing ties with Moscow,” Yelensky said, commenting on communication with Metropolitan Onufriy.

He also said that at the time, 400 priests of the UOC (MP) appealed to Onufriy with a call to convene a council and break ties with Russia.

“He did not accept the delegation of 400 priests and two metropolitans. Of course, we need to talk. I believe that the UOC can sever its ties with Moscow even at the stage of the trial,” he said.

Yelensky emphasized that although interaction with Onufriy would not be in the format of consultations, the DESS does not refuse to hold a dialogue.

In turn, Poturaiev emphasized that those 400 clergymen are an opposition movement within the UOC-MP.

As reported previously, on August 20, in the second reading, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill prohibiting the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (No. 8371 “On the Protection of Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations' Activities”).