UOC-MP Synod designates as ‘schismatic’ the Unification Council and imposes ban on Metropolitans Symeon and Oleksandr

“This assembly is a union of schismatics and has nothing to do with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate commented on the Unification Council, regarding which they issued a respective Appeal on December 17.

“For the reason of seceding, the Holy Synod was forced to remove from the administration of the diocese and to impose a ban from ministry on the Reverend Metropolitan Symeon of Vinnytsia and Bar, as well as on Metropolitan Oleksandr of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vyshneve ... Our Church, as a loving Mother, awaits with hope on their return,” the document says.

The UOC (MP) alleged once again that, by its actions, Constantinople "postpones for a long time, if not forever, the restoration of unity of the Orthodox in Ukraine.”

The UOC-MP also charges Constantinople with betrayal, “The Russian Orthodox Church has forcefully declared its autocephaly because the Patriarchate of Constantinople betrayed the Orthodox faith. This spiritual betrayal of the Orthodox faith has become the main reason for the separation from Constantinople and the Kyiv Metropolis” and reproached Constantinople that for centuries in the most difficult times of trials for Orthodoxy in our lands the Church of Constantinople did not offer relevant pastoral care and help. The Kyiv Metropolia, being weakened by a religious confrontation with the Uniates, devastated by wars, especially after the Brest Union in 1596, in order to preserve the Orthodox faith, became a part of the Russian Orthodox Church at the end of the seventeenth century.”

The UOC-MP urges their faithful bishops “to continue to observe purity of the Holy Orthodox Faith, to preserve the spiritual unity in the Holy Ukrainian Church, which is the canonical successor of the ancient Kyiv Metropolia.”