Spokesperson of UOC KP calls on Phanar "to resist" part of Local Churches

Spokesperson of the Kiev Patriarchate "Archbishop" Eustratiy Zoria

The spokesperson of the Kiev Patriarchate, "Archbishop" Eustratiy Zoria, said that Phanar and Local Churches face the question of either choosing unity or schism. According to him, the division of Orthodoxy has already happened, although it does not have a form of breaking the eucharistic communion yet.

"Moscow and its allies have already stepped backed from unity, rejecting the Council (Crete Council of 2016 – Ed.)," Zoria said. "Therefore, the question before Phanar and the Local Churches is: to cling to the phantom "unity", pacifying the aggressor, or to resist? "

The UOC KP representative assures that the Russian Orthodox Church is preparing an alternative Pan-Orthodox Council and planning to empower His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia with the leadership authority.

According to Zoria, at first glance such an assumption may seem incredible, but it has "grounds" for the reality of such a plan.

The climax of Zoria's speech was a statement about the "diplomatic war between the ROC and the Ecumenical Patriarchate", namely the ROC continues its work on concentrating around itself the whole Local Churches and individual hierarchs in those Churches where it cannot influence the Primates.

The spokesperson of the Kiev Patriarchate sees the recognition of the Church's autocephaly in Ukraine as the only "logical, reasonable and responsible step for solving the whole complex of problems".

"This (the recognition of autocephaly – Ed.) will spare Moscow from the opportunity to prove conclusively that the ROC is the largest Local Church. This will translate confrontation from the current paradigm "Slavs against the Greeks" into the paradigm "opponents of unity vs. proponents," because Kiev as the largest after the MP Slavic Church will be on the side of Constantinople," resumed Zoria.

Representatives of the Local Churches have repeatedly stated that they do not approve of the initiative to provide the Tomos on autocephaly to the so-called Single Local Church, and that the only canonical Church in Ukraine is the UOC. However, the Kiev Patriarchate has repeatedly expressed sсepticism about the hierarchs of the Local Churches. Recently, the same Eustratiy Zoria has accused them of corruption in favour of the ROC. At the same time, the Kiev Patriarchate is sure that their leader, the so-called Patriarch Filaret, should be the head of the SLC.

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