Metropolitan Agafangel: Feofania Council manifested the Church’s conciliarity

Metropolitan Agafangel. Photo: Odessa Eparchy

A permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa and Izmail, stated that the UOC Council held on May 27, 2022, at the St. Panteleimon Monastery in Feofania was a vivid manifestation of ecclesial unity and spiritual responsibility.

“One of the dogmatic properties of the Church is conciliarity. This is a multifaceted concept reflecting the universal, all-embracing, and unified nature of the Church, which gathers all believers in the one Lord Jesus Christ. As the Church spreads throughout the world, it, in contrast to schismatic associations, remains a single whole. It is precisely conciliarity, revealed through the Holy Trinity, that serves as the historical testimony of the Church’s unity,” explained the hierarch in his address published by the eparchy’s press service.

According to him, the Council in Theophany became one of the manifestations of such Church unity.

The hierarch emphasized that the Council of May 27, 2022, had been convened in full accordance with the canonical rules of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy and the statutory norms of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was a testimony to the free will of the people of God, the clergy, and the episcopate. There was no external pressure – the sessions were conducted in a spirit of peace and Gospel love.

According to Metropolitan Agafangel, diocesan assemblies were held in all eparchies prior to the Council, where delegates were elected, and all the decisions adopted in Feofania were supported by the overwhelming majority of participants.

The hierarch also addressed everyone now discussing the events of those days, urging them to maintain prudence, mutual respect, and impartiality in their statements.

“Remember that neither the storms nor the cannons of war will destroy our Holy Church. She, like a rock amid the waves, was, is, and will remain standing firm, and ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18),” concluded the UOC hierarch.

Metropolitan Agafangel ended his address with these words: “I offer prayers for our much-suffering Ukrainian people and for our Ukrainian State – that through darkness it may come to light, through suffering – to resurrection, and through trial – to the victory of good over evil.”

Recall that discussion around the situation at the UOC Council began after Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy stated in a podcast in Vinnytsia that, in his opinion, the Council in Feofania had not been free.

On the contrary, Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kamianske and Tsarychanka remarked that the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held on May 27, 2022, in Feofania had become an important and natural step for the Church amid wartime conditions and social challenges.

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