Cyprus bishop: Most Ukrainians – under omophorion of Metropolitan Onuphry

Metropolitan Onuphry, hierarchs and believers of the UOC during the Cross Procession in Kyiv. Photo: fond-uv.ru

Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and Tylliria of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus believes that the majority of Ukrainians belong to the canonical Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry, the website of the UOC DECR reports.

According to Metropolitan Nikiforos, "the anti-canonical granting of pseudo-autocephaly to the breakaway structures of Ukraine in no way led the Ukrainian people to canonicity, as the Ecumenical Patriarch claims, since the overwhelming majority of the Orthodox Ukrainian people remain loyal to the canonical Church under the omophorion of Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine."

On the contrary, Vladyka believes, "the actions of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew led to painful consequences – a catastrophic division of the Ukrainian Church and a great division of its Christian-named fullness, which resulted in a terrible schism threatening the body of World Orthodoxy."

Moreover, Metropolitan Nikiforos is confident that "there is no doubt and no objection to the fact that the principle of conciliarity, which is the main principle of government in the Orthodox Church, was violated in Ukraine in favor of the unauthorized and despotic power of one person – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew."

The hierarch of Cyprus recalled that “ironically, only 4 years ago”, Patriarch Bartholomew “convened, led and coordinated the work of the Holy and Great Council in Crete (June 18-25, 2016), who proclaimed in his address that ‘the Orthodox Church expresses its unity and conciliarity through the Council. Conciliarism inspires the organization and decision-making and determines the path the Church follows’."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos, the Tomos of the OCU cannot be justified by the canons of the Church.

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