The president of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the UCU advises the UOC-MP to get rid of fear and not consider concelebration with others "heresy"
He said this during the International Conference "Catholic-Orthodox documents and their reception in Ukraine", within the framework of which the Ukrainian translation of documents of the orthodox-Catholic dialogue was presented on October 26.
When asked by religious scholar Lyudmyla Fylypovich what to do with those who are categorically against the unity of Churches and dialogue, father Ivan Datsko answered:
"Tell them to get rid of their fear. John the Theologian writes: He who has fear has torment in himself, he is not perfect in love. Get rid of fear and look a little into history, in theology and learn how. The northern neighbor is afraid of losing control and power over Ukraine, over the Ukrainian Church,” said UGCC archpriest Ivan Datsko.
"Christ did not create canons, but people did. You know that in the Western Church, the celibacy law can be repealed one day. We already have what we can do, and so on. And now they are going to change it. A very difficult process! And Patriarch Bartholomew says: Calm down, don't think that you can all get married now. But if there is a young priest and is widowed, and has 4 children, then maybe we should make an exception? And so on, and so on. That is, human laws,” the representative of the UGCC said.
He recalled the case when the representative of the UOC-MP Metropolitan Augustine (Markevych) did not want to pray in the Common Prayer “Our Father”, because this, in his words, is “heresy”.
