Dumenko to Polish Primate: We are considered non-Christians by your Church

The head of the OCU, Epifaniy Dumenko, sent a letter to the Primate of the Polish Orthodox Church, in which he complained that the Polish Church not only refuses to concelebrate with the "priests" of the OCU, but even denies them he Holy Communion as non-Christians.

The letter was published on the OCU's website.

Dumenko complained to Metropolitan Sawa that "to date, we have not received from the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church either a response to the missive letters sent by us or a proposal for dialogue with the aim of clarifying all the issues that have arisen and continue to arise."

The head of the OCU links this with the "prejudiced attitude of a significant part of the clergy" of the Polish Church towards the members of his structure. Serhiy Dumenko "painfully takes in evidence of numerous examples of hierarchs and clergy of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church not only refusing to concelebrate with the OCU priests, but even denying them communion, treating them as non-Christians."

It is for this reason, as Dumenko points out, that his people reach out to Polish Catholics, who "provide them with worship facilities and church activities."

In this regard, Serhiy Dumenko "absolutely cannot grasp" the complaints of the Polish Church to Phanar, since, in his opinion, the OCU "is an autocephalous Local Church, not a part or structure of the Ecumenical Patriarchate."

As previously declared by the Patriarch of the Polish Church, Epifaniy is a layman, who needs to be ordained.

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