The ROC is “illegally establishing” its structures on our territory – OCU

Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: OCU

On November 7, 2025, the OCU Synod stated that the ROC is illegally establishing its structures on the territory of other Churches, including the OCU itself.

In response to a letter from Patriarch Bartholomew regarding the ROC’s activities in Africa, the OCU assured that it condemns "the establishment by the Moscow Patriarchate of Russian schismatic structures on the African continent, which is the exclusive canonical territory of the Alexandrian Patriarchate".

"The Church of Russia is illegally establishing its anti-canonical structures on the territory of other Churches, in particular on the territory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Alexandrian Patriarchate, the Romanian Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine," Dumenko’s office reported, adding that "the false teaching of the ‘Russian world’ and the anti-canonical, schismatic practices of the Church of Russia, which have their roots in this ethnophyletist and Manichean doctrine, are subject to universal ecclesiastical condemnation, and Kirill (Vladimir Gundiaev) is subject to church trial and permanent removal from the Moscow Patriarchal throne."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, called the words of Christ a "saying".

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