The head of the OCU, Metropolitan Epifaniy, spoke about the changes that took place in the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate at the Council held on May 27, 2022. According to him, the UOC-MP has not, in fact, separated from the Moscow Patriarchate. It was an imitation in order to avoid responsibility before the law, which forced the UOC-MP to indicate its affiliation with the Russian Church. At the UOC-MP Council, they did not declare autocephaly and neither did they say that it was leaving the ROC.
“On May 27, the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) took place in Feofania. Some try to interpret what happened as complete separation of the UOC-MP from the ROC. But this rather looks like a decision that allows to some extent to avoid liability before Law 2662 on renaming. The law states that, if a church has a governing center in the aggressor country, it must change its name from UOC to ROC. As we can see, there are attempts to clear any mention of the ROC in the statute. But in the first paragraph of the statute, which was published recently, it was seen that it was a letter of 1990, which was presented to the then former Metropolitan of the UOC Filaret. It speaks of independence and autonomy in governance, but the UOC remains an integral part of the ROC. Therefore, despite what was edited out, they remain part of the ROC, because not a word was said that they proclaim autocephaly and leave the ROC,” said Metropolitan Epifaniy, who spoke in an interview with NV.
The head of the OCU added that the UOC-MP is now pretending to be an independent and autonomous church.
“We do not see separation as such, we only hear statements. It is possible that all this is in order to suspend the process of transition of UOC-MP parishes to the OCU, but we will see, because now there are disputes underway within the church,” he said.
At the same time, the OCU primate agrees that there are many who still support secession from the ROC. The OCU welcomes what was announced in the Council’s decision on the forthcoming dialogue.
“On the eve of their Council, we took the initiative to start a dialogue, but without any preconditions, let alone ultimatums. They seemed to respond, but then put forward their ultimatums [this is about an appeal of the UOC, which demands to stop the “seizure of churches and forced transfers of parishes of the OCU” and “resolve the canonicity of the OCU hierarchy,”] which we will never go for, because we are recognized as a local Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” concluded Metropolitan Epifaniy.
It should be recalled that the head of the OCU told that parishes from the Moscow patriarchate shift to the OCU almost every day. Metropolitan Epifaniy also commented on the possibility of world Orthodoxy condemning the ROC.
