ROC Patriarch: One shouldn't think up more about the UOC than our Synod said

Patriarch Kirill. Photo: Official website of the Russian Orthodox Church

On December 22, 2022, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in a report at the diocesan meeting of Moscow, urged his clergy not to go beyond what the Synod determined in its decisions, while assessing the status of the UOC. The full text of the report is published on the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I ask you not to go beyond the boundaries of what the Holy Synod has determined in all your public statements and assessments of what is happening now in Ukraine, as well as in your correspondence and conversations with the clergy of the UOC. This is because someone’s imprudent and self-confident words should not damage the unity of our Church even more, inflict new wounds on those who are already in plight, aggravate the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Patriarch Kirill.

He believes that after the end of the war, "the fullness of the Church will judge how and what happened in the difficult times we are going through, and how it is appropriate for archpastors to continue to act in order to have the right to communicate the word of Christ's truth."

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church recalled the decisions of the Council of the UOC on May 27, but stated that according to the decisions of the Synod of the Russian Church of May 29 and June 7, any revision of the status of the UOC "is possible only within the framework of the legal conciliar procedure provided for by the Charter of our Church."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Patriarch Kirill explained whether the UOC is in schism.

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