Synod of UOC: Phanar's decisions on His Beatitude have no canonical grounds

Meeting of the Holy Synod of the UOC on December 9, 2020. Photo: news.church.ua

On December 9, 2020, members of the Holy Synod of the UOC, during a regular meeting, noted that the decisions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople regarding His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry have no canonical grounds, according to the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The Synodals emphasized that “the Patriarch of Constantinople has no reason to make any statements regarding the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” since “His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine has never been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and therefore the decision of the Church of Constantinople in relation to him has no canonical grounds."

The Synod of the UOC also noted there is no decision whatsoever of the church court to remove His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry from his primatial office in the Kyiv Metropolitanate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, therefore there is no reason to say that he has lost his powers as the canonically elected and enthroned Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine.

According to the members of the Synod, the attempts of Patriarch Bartholomew to dictate his will to other Local Churches do not correspond to Orthodox ecclesiology, while "his ambitions, anti-church actions and their consequences call for a comprehensive discussion and principled assessment at the pan-Orthodox level."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, according to the Holy Synod of the UOC, Phanar's rhetoric on the status of the UOC threaten the religious peace in Ukraine.

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