UOC spokesperson: No Church has yet "recognized" OCU conciliarly

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: screenshot / video / facebook.com/ 1kozaktv

None of the Churches that "recognized" the OCU did this conciliarly, said Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, in a commentary to 1kozaktv.

“The Church of Cyprus is already the third one to have recognized the OCU not by a synod but by an arbitrary and personal decision of the Primate,” the spokesperson for the UOC noted. “There is not yet any conciliar recognition, but in the Church, all actions are performed conciliarly. This was the reason for the four metropolitans of the Church of Cyprus to protest".

“And we see that the issue of recognizing the OCU does not pass reception among the Local Orthodox Churches,” the archpriest explained. “In each of these Churches, which, let's say, "half" recognized, there is no conciliar recognition, bishops do not recognize, the people and clergy do not recognize. This means that the decisions are wrong and generally contradict the spirit of the Church."

Now, he added, everyone is looking forward to the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and its decision.

“We believe that the truth will prevail sooner or later. I think that there was definitely pressure from the Phanar and pressure from the Americans, perhaps some other facts that prompted Archbishop Chrysostom to do this. It is evident that he wanted to do this earlier, but was awaiting the ordination of the bishop, who could give him a one-vote advantage in the Synod. The hierarchy is actually divided there,” said the deputy head of the UOC DECR.

According to him, people still know where the truth is, and where the untruth is, and "the four metropolitans clearly said that Epiphany is a schismatic, his ordination is non-canonical, the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are arbitrary, anti-canonical and non-church."

“The truth is on the side of these four metropolitans. <...> How many cases were there when patriarchs and archbishops made mistakes in the history of the Church. Therefore, a conciliar, general and free discussion and free solution of these issues are important, and not the dictate of one Church, as in the Phanar case. Now, it seems to me, the Patriarchate of Constantinople sees that its decisions cannot be implemented at the conciliar level, and because of this it puts pressure on individual primates to recognize the OCU. But all the same – these decisions are not made by the fullness of the Church, there is no reception,” resumed Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich.

As reported, on October 24, 2020, Archbishop Chrysostomos II commemorated for the first time the name of the head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, during the service. The Primate of the Church of Cyprus said that his stance on the OCU "will serve Orthodoxy". After that, four metropolitans of the Church of Cyprus accused the archbishop of flagrantly violating the synodal system and demanded to immediately revoke the anti-canonical and solo decision to include the name of Epiphany Dumenko in the Diptych of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches.

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