Primate of Greek Church begins to study the UOC position on autocephaly

A meeting of Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) with His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and all Hellas Ieronymos II

The meeting of the Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and the whole of Hellas, Ieronymos II took place in the framework of the pilgrimage of Orthodox youth of Ukraine to Greece, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

Bishop Victor handed to His Beatitude Vladyka the Greek translation of the Synodal document, which reflects an official position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Archpastor of the Orthodox Church of Greece said, "We will study this issue carefully, but it is very complex, therefore, it takes a long time to study it."

Such an opinion was also voiced by Archbishop of Athens at a meeting with the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew.

Bishop Victor of Baryshevka also gave an invitation of His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry to send a representative of the Holy Greek Church to celebrate the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus.

On May 25, at the session of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, there was adopted an Address to the Episcopate, clergy, monastics, and laity of the UOC reagrding the SLC. The document states, in particular, “The history of the Church testifies that those attempts of unity that were conducted "from above" were often not perceived by the church people, because they had political rationale and did not take into account the peculiarities of the internal church life. After such "unifications" on the initiative and with active participation of state power, temples grew deserted, because the faithful felt such "unifications" were artificial. Intervention in this process by forces alien to the Church can divide our people even more, and we can reach an even greater separation instead of the desirable unity.”

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