“Unfortunately, we see that hierarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate, who have recently visited Ukraine and communicated with representatives of state authorities and representatives of unrecognized church structures, in fact ignore the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” UOC chancellor Metropolitan Antony of Borispol and Brovary said in his interview posted on Thursday at the UOC website.
He points out that the UOC is the major confession in Ukraine. As to the number of communities, this Church is one of the most numerous in the world.
“So, we believe that our Church should be compulsory included in all possible negotiations on overcoming church schisms in Ukraine,” the metropolitan stressed.
Thus, he commented on the recent visit to Ukraine carried out by the two Constantinople officials, when one of them backed up the idea to set up a local Orthodox Church in the country.
Metropolitan Antony reminds that, according to the church canons, bishops of a local church can officially visit the territory of the other church only when it is approved by the church hierarchy working in the territory of the visit. Officials of the Constantinople Patriarchate did not coordinate their visit with UOC leaders.
“Unfortunately, it is not the first time when bishops of the Constantinople Patriarchate visit Ukraine on Patriarch Bartholomew’s instruction, but they do not inform the Ukrainian Orthodox Church about the visits,” the hierarch said.
He stressed that it is impossible to overcome church schism ignoring the only existing in Ukraine recognized Orthodox Church.
“Experience shows that opening parallel structures of different local Churches on the same territory threatens both church and civil peace. We hope that in future leaders of the Ukrainian state and representatives of other local Churches will consider the position of hierarchs, clerics and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the metropolitan said.
