Hierarch of Cyprus: Onuphry is the canonical Primate of Church of Ukraine

Metropolitan Neophytos of Morfou. Photo: screenshot from youtube

On October 28, 2020, Metropolitan Neophytos of Morfou of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus announced that he considers His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry to be the canonical Primate of the Ukrainian Church, Romfea publication reports.

During his meeting with parishioners, Metropolitan Neophytos of Morfou, answering the question about the canonicity of Metropolitan Onuphry and "recognition" of Dumenko, said that, according to the sacred canons, "there is one bishop for one city."

“In one city there cannot be two bishops, just as there cannot be several fathers in one house. When there are two fathers in the same house, then one is a father ("pateras" in Greek – Ed.), while the other is a monster ("teras", "teras" from Greek – beast / monster – Ed.)," the bishop emphasized.

He recalled that “Kyiv is a city that adopted Christianity from the Byzantines, i.e. from Constantinople, more than 1000 years ago, the first city of the entire vast Slavic region, and it is a great blessing of the Lord that these people became Christians from the Byzantines and to this day, thanks to the Lord, keep their faith despite all the vicissitudes, unias, Catholicization, atheism, communism, papism. All these heretics are trying to change this nation and alienate it from the Orthodox faith."

In the opinion of the Metropolitan of Morfou, "Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv was, is, and, I hope, will be the canonical bishop of Kyiv."

He stressed that “everyone has recognized him: our Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Greece, Alexandria, and Jerusalem – all the Local Orthodox Churches, until recently, recognized that he is the canonical bishop of Kyiv, the Archbishop of all Ukraine.”

But “when politics mixes with church affairs, this leads the Local Churches to great upheavals, and if they are not careful, then to schism. This has already happened before, there is nothing new about it," Vladyka said.

“Personally, I believe that this is an intractable task, since the ecumenical patriarchy, solely for the sake of geostrategic, geopolitical reasons, in the context of the new World Order, recognized Epiphany who comes from a schismatic group of the non-ordained (without the Holy Spirit this means) as the new primate,” said Metropolitan Neophytos.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos of the Cypriot Orthodox Church said that the decision of Archbishop Chrysostomos to recognize the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko is cunning and destructive.

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