On August 17, Metropolitan Onufriy led the Liturgy in honor of the 9th anniversary of his enthronement in the church of the Venerable Agapit of Pechersk in the Lower Lavra. In addition to a group of UOC (MP) bishops, he was co-served by a delegation of the Orthodox Church of America, whose canonical structure is ambiguous.
The fact is that until 1970 it was the metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the Moscow Patriarch Alexiy I granted it the “Tomos of Autocephaly” and declared it independent. Since then, only five local Churches have recognized the autocephaly of the OCA. All of them at the time were in the countries of the so-called “social camp” and were dependent on the will of the USSR. These are the Georgian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Czechoslovak Churches, as well as the Moscow Patriarchate itself. All others continue to consider the Church in America an element of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The reason for this is the dubious right to grant autocephaly by someone other than the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as the presence of other Orthodox structures in the USA and Canada. In addition, North America was not a canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, and therefore it could not separate from itself what never canonically belong to it.
The lack of recognition and Russian roots made the OCA an ally of the Moscow Patriarchate. So, in 2019, they officially refused to establish contacts with the OCU, admitting that no one asked them to take such a step because they consider it a foreign diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Archpriest Alexander Rentel, head of OCA affairs, Archpriest and archpriest Nazarii Polatayko, rector of the Cathedral in honor of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos Recovery of the Lost in Los Angeles, took part in Onufry’s celebrations. They read the message of the head of the OCA, Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard).
We should remind you that Onufriy promoted five hierarchs of the UOC (MP).
