On December 9, 2020, a meeting of the Holy Synod was held at the residence of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, MP.
The information and Educational Department of the UOC-MP published the outcomes of the Synod.
Members of the Synod believe that the statement of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople regarding the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "is a threat to the preservation of religious peace in Ukraine and deepens the crisis in world Orthodoxy."
The message of the UOC MP following the results of the Synod reads:
"The actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to legalize Ukrainian schismatics and try to pass them off as the canonical Church are illegal and anti-canonical. It is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that leads its continuity from the Kyiv Metropolis, which was established in 988. While the "UAOC" and "UOC-KP", on the basis for the creation of the "OCU", are newly created structures that broke away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The patriarch of Constantinople has no grounds to make any statements regarding the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and all Ukraine has never been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Therefore, the decisions of this Church regarding him have no canonical grounds. His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy has not been removed from the administration of the Kyiv Metropolis and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by any legal ecclesiastical court. Therefore, there is no reason to say that he has lost his powers as a canonically elected and enthroned Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine. Patriarch Bartholomew's attempt to dictate his will to other local churches does not correspond to Orthodox ecclesiology. And its ambitions, anti-Church actions and their consequences require discussion and principled assessment at the Pan-Orthodox level."