MP: The authorities will ask Phanar for the status of patriarchy for OCU

Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew and Dumenko. Photo: nv.ua

MP from the Servant of the People party Nikita Poturaev, head of the Humanitarian Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, said in an interview with NV that the OCU would ask Phanar for the status of patriarchy.

According to him, the strategic goal for the Ukrainian state in the spiritual sphere is "to unite the pro-Ukrainian dioceses of the UOC with the OCU."

After such a “unification”, the Ukrainian authorities, together with church leaders, will turn to the head of the Phanar to receive a second Tomos, which will grant “the status of patriarchy to the united Ukrainian Church.”

“Our goal as state agents is to contribute to the establishment of a single Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It already exists – this is the OCU,” Poturaev said.

He added that when "a single Orthodox Church headed by a patriarch" appears in Ukraine, it "will receive another Tomos, as has happened in history."

“This is about the strategic goals of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian Orthodoxy,” Poturaev explained.

“They (the UOC – Ed.) have certain hopes that they will be able to prove the legality of the contracts (for renting the Lavra – Ed.). Their tactics are clear, but they have no strategy. Therefore, I believe that they will lose,” said the representative of the Servant of the People.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to the "honorary patriarch of the OCU" Filaret Denisenko, the Greeks outwitted the Ukrainians and the OCU has no independence.

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