Metropolitan Feodor: Don’t distort significance of UOC Council’s decisions

Metropolitan Feodor. Photo: the hierarch’s Facebook page

The UOC Council held in Feofania on May 27, 2022, became, according to Metropolitan Feodor of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod, “a true manifestation of conciliarity, spiritual unity, and the grace-filled guidance of the Holy Spirit.” The hierarch stated this in an address published on his Facebook page.

He emphasized that the initiative to convene the Council arose not from outside but from within the life of the Church. “There was no political, administrative, or any other pressure. It was our common response to the challenges of the time, born of prayer and love for the Church,” said Metropolitan Feodor.

According to him, convening the Council was a natural and necessary step, dictated by the inner need of the Church’s fullness “to come together so that, being guided by the Holy Spirit, in brotherly accord and humility, we might make common decisions important for our further ecclesial life.”

The Council’s work took place in a peaceful, kind, and brotherly atmosphere. All delegates had complete freedom to express their thoughts, proposals, and concerns.

“During the discussions, no one was forced to take a particular position or make a specific decision. Voting on all issues was conducted openly, honestly, and voluntarily, and every participant of the Council acted according to the dictates of his own conscience, in the spirit of responsibility before God and the Church,” he said.

The Council unanimously expressed support for its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, and confirmed that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is independent and self-governing.

“It was not merely an official assembly but a genuine spiritual act of conciliar wisdom – when, despite differing views, everyone was united by the desire to preserve peace, unity, and purity of faith,” the statement reads.

The hierarch reminded that all the decisions adopted at the Feofania Council represent the conciliar voice of the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and their observance is obligatory for all – bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity alike.

“Very strange and incomprehensible interpretations of the Council’s decisions I regard as provocative and absurd,” concluded the Metropolitan of Mukachevo.

Earlier, Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy stated in an interview that, in his view, the UOC Council in Feofania had been “not free.”

Later, in particular, Metropolitan Agafangel noted that the Council in Feofania had become a manifestation of the Church’s conciliarity.

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