The Moscow Patriarchate decided to comment on the separatism of the UOC in the spirit of Peskov
The Moscow Patriarchate avoided harsh decisions and formulations regarding the announcement in Kyiv the day before by the top of the UOC of changes in the charter, actually self-proclaimed autocephaly in violation of church rules.
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday issued a press release saying that it “had a judgment” about the situation in the UOC. It is recalled that the autonomy of the UOC was granted by a charter of Patriarch Alexy II in 1990. The press service of the Russian Orthodox Church notes that the decisions taken the day before in Kyiv “need to be studied in the prescribed manner for their compliance with the said Certificate", since changes to the charter had to be submitted for approval to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.
The Synod also expressed regret that in a number of dioceses of the UOC the commemoration of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' is being stopped, which has already led to divisions within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For its part, the Russian Orthodox Church intends to continue to pray for the preservation of church unity and for a speedy end to the bloodshed.
An expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, Kirill Frolov, believes that the decision of the UOC to sever relations with Moscow will be considered worthless.
“It is obvious that the synodal audit will show an obvious discrepancy between what was adopted on May 27 in Kyiv and neither the canons nor the documents of the Russian Orthodox Church. If everything corresponded, then there would be nothing to check. It is also obvious that only the liberation of Kyiv by the Russian army can implement the decisions of the Holy Synod,” Frolov told PolitNavigator.
He shared some details of the Ukrainian schismatic “council” reported from Ukraine.
“Witnesses describe the inappropriately harsh behavior of Metropolitan Onuphry at the Meeting. Nobody expected such a reaction from him. he behaved categorically and peremptorily.
Metropolitan Hilarion (Donetsk) spoke and recalled what Father Zosima said about this situation with autocephaly. Onuphry said in a harsh manner that this was Zosima’s private opinion and his vision.
Metropolitan Luke (Zaporozhye) spoke out against autocephaly. Onuphry shut him up just like Hilarion, saying that he had been too long in one place and it was time for him to serve somewhere else...
Metropolitan Onuphry reprimanded Metropolitan Paul (the governor of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra). Paul was against autocephaly.
Metropolitan Agafangel (Odessa) was against the non-canonical nature of the event, to which Metropolitan Onuphry pointed out his very advanced age and advised him to retire.
Onuphry reserved the right to commemorate all the primates of the Local Churches (the rest should commemorate only the ruling bishop). Patriarch Kirill is now commemorated in fifth place on the list. This already happened on Sunday in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Miro will be brewed in Kyiv. In order not to frighten the people with the word “autocephaly”, it was customary to write “self-government”. But this is actually a translation from the Greek word “autocephaly.”
In fact, since Friday, the UOC has been a self-proclaimed autocephalous church (in violation of church canons according to the Macedonian principle, until its real recognition by Serbian),” Frolov recounted.
According to him, on Sunday “in Odessa, Metropolitan Agafangel cried when he brought out the Holy Gifts at the liturgy, as if he doubted that after the meeting on May 27, bread and wine had become the Body and Blood of Christ, and was afraid that the Grace of the Holy Spirit was retreating from the UOC».
However, the Patriarchate seems to have decided to pretend that nothing extraordinary had happened, refusing to notice that the decision of the UOC to break with the Russian Church was proclaimed precisely in the context of supporting the Nazi army of Ukraine, which is now at war with the Russian army.
This is the statement issued on behalf of the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion:
“There was no statement of separation from the Russian Orthodox Church. No statement was made that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would have any new status; on the contrary, it once again confirmed that it has the status of independence and independence, which was given to it back in 1990,” Hilarion said, in fact taking the position of an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
The chief editor of the Tsargrad TV channel, Mikhail Tyurenkov, believes that the rhetoric of the Moscow Patriarchate is completely inadequate to the seizure of power in the UOC by separatists.
“Listening and reading through some of the official comments regarding the day before yesterday’s Ukrainian Council and the “clarification” of today’s Synodal decisions, I experience persistent deja vu. At first I didn’t even realize what it was connected with, but now I remember. This is roughly how Mr. Peskov recently commented on the special military operation. Fortunately, in recent weeks there has been an informational change for the better,” Tyurenkov noted.
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