Met. Theodore: Churches that recognized OCU destroyed their catholicity

Metropolitan Theodore (Gayun) of Kamyanets-Podilskyi and Horodok said that the Local Churches that recognized the OCU destroyed their catholicity, reports kp-eparchy.com.

According to him, the lack of catholicity is expressed in the authoritarianism of the head of the Local Church or the hierarch, who “push through their individual decisions under the pretext of the good of the Church and take them without considering the opinions of other hierarchs and the people of God.”

“This violation of agreement in brotherly love is then expressed in opposition and schism within the Church itself,” noted Metropolitan Theodore.

The hierarch of the UOC cited as an example the Churches of Cyprus, Alexandria and Greece, whose heads recognized the OCU by their sole decision, which led to internal confusion within the Churches themselves.

“Thus, a number of hierarchs refused to concelebrate with their Primate (Archbishop Chrysostomos – Ed.), and Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos stated that the decision to recognize Dumenko, taken by Archbishop Chrysostomos without the consent of the Holy Synod, violates the synodal structure of the Church and destroys its ecclesiology. A similar situation developed in the Church of Alexandria, when its head, Patriarch Theodore, without the participation and decision of the Holy Synod, recognized the canonicity of the Tomos of the OCU. Several bishops at once declared their disagreement with this position, and several dozen priests of the Patriarchate of Alexandria addressed their Primate with an open letter, in which they asked to reconsider the decision to recognize "Ukrainian schismatics". The position of Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece, who included the name of Epifaniy Dumenko in liturgical diptychs, was equally questionable. Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus declared that he could not join this decision, and this statement was supported by a number of Greek hierarchs,” added Metropolitan Theodore.

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