ROC: It's time to correct the mistake with the creation of the OCU
The creation in Ukraine of schismatics under the patronage of the Patriarchate of Constantinople of the so-called OCU did not unravel the religious knot in the country.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Vladimir Legoyda, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between the Church and Society and the Media, said this in an interview with Izvestia.
“Almost everyone remained in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But the situation is still alarming, primarily from the point of view of the actions of nationalists and periodic indulgence of them by the authorities at different levels. We can state that not a single one of the promises made by the political authorities in the person of President Poroshenko and which were given from ecclesiastical Istanbul was put into practice. Patriarch Bartholomew said that with his decision he would untie a complex religious knot in Ukraine. This, of course, did not happen,” Legoyda told Izvestia.
He recalled that both Kyiv politicians and Constantinople predicted that bishops and laity from the UOC would quickly move to the new church.
“And that didn’t happen. Almost all 12,5 thousand churches remained in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the primate of which is His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Less than 1% of churches have left the Church over the past time, and most of these situations are associated with pressure on people, with violation of the law with the connivance of local authorities,” the RAC representative emphasized.
He also assessed the statement of the head of the OCU Epiphanius, who said that “the mistake must be corrected” and the celebration of Christmas should be postponed from January 7 to December 25.
“The mistake that really needs to be corrected is the creation of the so-called OCU using non-canonical methods, through gross interference on the part of church Istanbul in the affairs of another local Church,” the publication’s interlocutor is convinced.
He also told which of the Orthodox churches recognized the OCU.
“Today, this is Constantinople, which, in fact, granted non-canonical autocephaly, which was recognized by the primates and part of the episcopate of the Alexandrian, Cypriot and Greek churches,” the priest clarified.
He clarified that the Russian Orthodox Church now does not have Eucharistic communion with Constantinople, which also does not exist with the primates of the three churches named, as well as those from their episcopate who recognized the schismatics.
“At the same time, we proceed from the fact that the recognition of the schismatics as the fullness of these three churches did not take place, since no decision was made at the level of the ecclesiastical authorities of these churches competent to make such a decision - the Synod or the Council. That is why Eucharistic communion has been preserved with some bishops and clergy of these churches,” Legoyda emphasized.
He expressed the hope that “the long-suffering Ukrainian land and the long-suffering Ukrainian church will one day be able to survive this difficult time, and the canonical church dispensation will prevail in Ukraine.”
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