Phanar: Ukrainians complain about UOC imposing non-church factors on them

Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: UNIAN

The Russian Church through the UOC constantly imposed and imposes on Ukrainians the pro-Russian policy of the Kremlin, the journalists of TSN reported the statement of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

According to the authors of the story, the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate stressed that the Russian Orthodox Church did not have the right to re-subordinate the Ukrainian Church to its jurisdiction by “maximizing” the “condescension of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius of 1686 regarding the possibility of appointing his Metropolitan of Kiev”.

“Our brothers in Ukraine constantly complained about the fact that they are ruled by the Church, which also wants to impose, alongside other things, non-church factors. The state and political leadership of the nation had repeatedly made the same request, and therefore, after many years of reflection, prayer, effort, dialogue, perseverance and patience, we recognized these people as worthy of being granted autocephalous status,” said the head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Recall, according to Patriarch Bartholomew, the issue of granting independence to the Ukrainian Church had been topical for centuries. He stated that “the majority of the population” of Ukraine had long sought the Tomos from Phanar.

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