UOC priest: A hierarch going to “Council” will be turned from the church

Protopriest Vsevolod Rybchinsky, rector of St. Olga Cathedral in Kiev

He who will choose to join the "unification council" will become an actual traitor. It was said in an interview with the UOJ by one of the oldest priests of Kiev, rector of St. Olga Cathedral, Protopriest Vsevolod Rybchinsky.

Father Vsevolod underscored: of someone from the UOC hierarchs chooses to participate in the “council”, he does not advise his parishioners to take it for granted since he is, in fact, a traitor. “This will also be a lesson for those who are thinking of shifting to another denomination. I do not advise it. Because people will no longer take such bishop as their hierarch: he will be a defector. And people will not allow him to serve the Divine Liturgy. It will be a disaster for him. He will be neither here nor there, between heaven and earth, so to say. If he wants to go back – just turn him from the door of the church!”

“We will not join the 'council', which is scheduled for December 15. Even if they manage to unite with each other, they will lose a lot. I’ve spoken with many priests in Kiev who are respected people. I was told it would be an Exarchate of the Patriarch of Constantinople in Ukraine, not a patriarchy,” explained the clergyman. 

He added, “In case of the exarchate, a new church structure will not have preparation of chrism, nor will it have its supreme court: only Constantinople will resolve all disputable issues and manage all ordinations to arch-sees. It’ll be a defeat rather than a victory. And there will be no unification as such.”

As the UOJ reported, in July of the current year, one of the oldest clerics of the capital, Protopriest Vsevolod Rybchinsky, turned 80 years old. The hero of the day was congratulated by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev and All Ukraine and awarded the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The priest devoted almost 20 years of his life to the construction of the temple complex in honor of St. Princess Olga, located in Kharkovsky residential area.

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