The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) does not believe that a dialogue with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine could take place in the near future.
This was stated in an interview with Telegraf by the spokesman for the UOC (MP), Metropolitan Klyment of Nizhyn and Pryluky (Oleh Vecheria).
According to the cleric, his Church declared the need for negotiations not only based on the outcome of the UOC (MP) Council held on May 27, 2022.
“Even before that, it was repeatedly emphasized that there should be such a dialogue. Instead, we recently heard from the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine that they will not launch any dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Moreover, they will perform some kind of ‘vetting’ if someone wants to switch to their side.
The OCU is increasingly declaring that they do not need this dialogue. Today, they feel that they can forcibly take away, seize, they can count on the fact that the local authorities will agree to make the decisions most absurd from the legal perspective and that this will be legitimized by the will of the crowd. Perhaps OCU currently does not need dialogue because it has a powerful administrative resource on its side. However, there is not even a hint of anything church-like in their behavior. And people feel this,” he said.
Klyment added that now the churches of the OCU are “empty even in cities”, while those of the UOC (MP) are “full”, despite all “obstacles and harassment.”
