Spokesman of UOC comments on the appeal of Alexandrian and Polish Churches

Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC

The joint appeal of Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa and Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland with the call to eliminate church misunderstandings regarding the SLC is a signal to all the Local Churches, wrote Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich, the deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, on his Facebook page.

Commenting on the appeal, the clergyman noted: "It's nice that two authoritative Primates raised their voices, who appeal to all those in a position to do. And all those who it depends on are now on all the Local Churches."

Father Nikolai stressed: The Primates state that church misunderstandings in Ukraine are related to granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

"I would like to emphasize that the Primates ... call to "to stave off the conflict concerning the question" and not, as some Ukrainian media are trying to misinterpret, "to establish peace in Ukraine through autocephaly," the spokesperson of the UOC explains and recalls the words from a recent interview of Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary to the Romfea agency: "I do not know why the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided that the schism will be healed through granting autocephaly. It is known that before treating any illness, the doctor must make the correct diagnosis. In our case, it is the question of the autocephalous structure that generated a schism in the early 1990s. And I do not think that it will be right to treat the disease with the means that caused it."

According to the deputy head of the UOC DECR, "in such texts, as this statement of the two Primates, recommendations are not given, no assessments are made, there is no condemnation or support of any party, and this is understandable. Only the presence of the problem is indicated and the fact that it should be solved with the aim of "to stave off the conflict concerning the question". This is a call to solve the problem. The conflict is brewing, and it must be resolved. One might think that the appeal is a response to the call of the ROC to postpone the discussion of this question to the general Orthodox level."

"I think that soon such signals can also come from other Local Churches. After all, according to Apostle Paul, in the Church as in the Body of Christ, when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And you are the body of Christ, and individually the members of this Body (cf. 1 Cor 12:26)," Father Nikolai concluded.

As reported earlier, the Primates of the Alexandrian and Polish Churches has called for resolving church misunderstandings regarding granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

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