The Synod of the UOC-MP elected a locum tenens – he became a strong supporter of unity with the Russian Church
Kyiv, February 24 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – Today in Kyiv, the Synod of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate elected a locum tenens – he became Metropolitan Onuphry of Chernivtsi, who is considered a strong supporter of unity with the Russian Church.
The election of a locum tenens is connected with the serious illness of the Primate, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kyiv, the press service of the UOC MP told Navigator.
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Metropolitan Onufriy is one of the fathers of the Kharkov Cathedral, where in the early 1990s the bishops of the UOC voted against the course of the then Metropolitan of Kyiv Philaret towards independence from Moscow.
“I am convinced that we have no spiritual arguments in favor of disconnecting from the Moscow Patriarchate. The most important mission of the Church is the salvation of human souls. In our Church - in the Russian Orthodox Church - this grace of salvation exists to this day. What more can you look for in the Church? Those people who are looking for their own in the Church, and not God’s, they want separation. If it happens, it will be against the will of God. If this happens, then I think that Orthodoxy in Ukraine will be in very great danger, and I am even sure that it will be destroyed,” Bishop Onuphry said earlier.
Navigator's sources in the metropolis, meanwhile, do not expect any sharp change of course in connection with the election of a locum tenens. The agency’s interlocutors remind that church democracy implies that fateful decisions are made by the Synod, and not individually by the head of the UOC.
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