Phanar hierarch opposes peace plan over UOC rehabilitation clause

Archbishop Elias (left) together with Serhii Dumenko. Photo: OCU

The head of the Finnish Orthodox Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Elias, issued a statement regarding the U.S. plan to establish peace in Ukraine.

According to the hierarch, the plan “has caused legitimate concern,” since he has been praying for a just peace for three years, yet the current proposed conditions “do not inspire optimism.”

The archbishop explained that he is “particularly troubled” by the plan’s requirement that Ukraine “correct” its legislation on freedom of religion.

“This requirement can only mean granting guarantees to the church structure of the Moscow Patriarchate in the country. This condition is not based on facts. I know this because I have seen the truth with my own eyes,” Archbishop Elias stated.

He then explained where his understanding of the religious situation in Ukraine comes from.

“While being there, in a country ravaged by war, I did not see religious persecution – I saw unity. Our conversations with the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, as well as with the religious leaders of Lviv, testified that freedom of religion in Ukraine is fully upheld. Religious communities do not live in fear of one another but act freely,” the hierarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate asserted.

He added that “a lasting peace cannot be built on injustice.” Whether he considers the destruction of the Church of millions of Ukrainian believers to be “justice,” the archbishop did not clarify.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that according to U.S. media, the new peace plan includes official status for the UOC.

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