The Patriarchate of Constantinople canceled the act of transferring the territory of Ukraine under the administration of the Russian Church, and since then, in fact, the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate has not existed in Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The bishop of the Church of Constantinople, representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Job of Telmi spoke about this in an interview with BBC Ukraine.
“By the repeal of Act 1686, the administration of the Moscow Church of the Kyiv Metropolis and all dioceses in Ukraine was abolished,” the archbishop said.
“From a canonical point of view, this means that today in Ukraine the UOC MP no longer exists. All bishops now in Ukraine de facto, according to this decision of the synod, are bishops of the Ecumenical Throne, and they must now wait for the directive of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on their future fate,” he explained.
This means that all hierarchs of the Ukrainian churches in the eyes of Constantinople have the same status and equal rights to participate in the council of the Ecumenical Patriarchate regarding the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church.
The representative of Constantinople refrained from answering the question of when a council regarding Ukrainian autocephaly might be convened. According to him, the Ecumenical Patriarch will convene this council when he considers that “the time has come.”
He also explained that two Orthodox churches will not be able to exist canonically in Ukraine.
“According to the canons of the church, there should be only one Orthodox church on the territory of one state,” Job said.
On October 11, the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate supported the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. The synod also lifted the anathema from the head of the UOC-KP Filaret and the primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church Macarius.
The Russian Orthodox Church considers such a decision a violation of church canons. On October 15, the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church declared it impossible for her to continue to remain in Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.