UAOC leader: I can be deceived once, twice, but it’ll no longer work

The head of the UAOC is not ready for a unification council

Everyone keeps talking about the unification council – journalists, the president of Ukraine, and spokesman of the UOC KP, Eustratiy Zoria, but how to make it happen, if three most important pillars for the formation of the unified church structure — its name, statute and model — have not yet been defined. About this in an interview with Espresso TV said the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church "metropolitan" Makariy.

According to him, there are no negotiations in this direction, and after the last meeting with the head of the UOC KP Filaret, at which he said that only his statute would be used, the UAOC leader began to question the success of the union.

“They want to unite everyone, so solemnly, to the whole world,” said Makariy Maletich. “May God help about that, though now I doubt it. I didn’t use to have doubts, but after Sunday I have.”

He stressed that he was not ready for the council: “Neither I, nor my bishops, nor the priests are ready. I told the exarchs it takes two weeks to agree, but they said it was a long time. But how to do it faster if there is no statute and name, I do not know. Well, I will convene priests and deacons, but what shall I tell them?”

The way out of this situation, according to the UAOC, is the intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who can appoint a metropolitan, hand him the Tomos, which will subsequently unite “those willing”.

Also, Makariy Maletich noted that he had acted consistently in the matter of transferring St. Andrew's Church to the Constantinople Patriarchate unlike President Petro Poroshenko, who on the eve stressed that the temples belong to the state and will not be transferred to anyone.

“I replied that I personally agreed, but I will gather the bishops, because it’s not solely I who makes decisions,” explained the “metropolitan”. “We give it away, but you have to give us something in return. <...> There is a church of St. Cyril, there is a reserve, there is a church of the Savior on Berestov – here we go. And in the ZIK program, the president said he’d promised to make it up for both Filaret and Makariy, but it will be one church to get by. So, one has to be consistent. I can be deceived once, twice, but it will not work anymore.”

“Moscow (temples – Ed.) won’t be transferred, whereas the only cathedral of the UAOC can be. Such justice we have, complained Makariy. “Filaret also has monasteries, churches, serves in Little Sofia. So the president is not acting in good faith, even though I praised him."

Recall that during the “prayer for autocephaly”, which took place on October 14, on the Sofia Square in Kiev, the head of the UOC KP said that “as we have achieved autocephaly, so we will manage to unite all Orthodox Churches into one” and “create one Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by the Kiev patriarch.”

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