Cypriot hierarch: Tomos of OCU cannot be justified by canons of the Church

Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos. Photo: pravoslavye.org.ua

Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and Tylliria of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus believes that the granting of "autocephaly" to the OCU cannot be canonically justified, according to the website of the UOC DECR.

Metropolitan Nikiforos asserts that “the granting of pseudo-autocephaly to breakaway groups of Ukraine without prior notification and consent of all Orthodox autocephalous Churches, as well as the Mother-Church, which in this case is the Russian Church, is an action that completely contradicts the age-old canonical tradition and age-old ecclesiastic practice and cannot be justified from the point of view of the rules.”

In addition, the bishop is sure that the canons are also challnged by "the removal of excommunication from the excommunicated and anathematized without their prior sincere and deep repentance."

The hierarch of the Cypriot Church underscores that the canons are also violated in the case when "it is affirmed contrary to the rules that once the Ecumenical Patriarch had and continues to have the right to receive appeals from the clergy not only of his Church and his jurisdiction, but of all Orthodox Patriarchates and autocephalous Churches." 

That is why, according to Vladyka, "the granting of autocephalous status to Ukraine cannot have real canonical effects and should not be approved by the Local Orthodox Autocephalous Churches."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that in the opinion of Metropolitan Nikiforos, the abolition of the patriarchal letter of 1686 by Phanar is invalid.

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