DESS: OCU values the possibility to pray with Catholics and Protestants
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience published a statement in response to the "synod" of the OCU. The DESS praised Dumenko's organization for giving Ukraine "a full voice in Ecumenical Orthodoxy." The document also emphasized that “not only many Orthodox believers in Ukraine, but also many secular people were rooting for the formation of the OCU.”
“It is important to have divine services in Ukrainian, not in Church Slavonic <…> It is important to be able to pray together with Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Protestants. The openness of Ukrainian Orthodoxy within itself and towards the broader Christian world is what can make Ukrainian Orthodoxy a particularly important voice both in the diversity of Ukraine and in the harmony of the cultures of the world. So the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is called upon to embody such aspirations of believers,” the State Ethnopolitics said.
As the UOJ reported, the "archbishop" was concelebrated by a Catholic priest in the Ternopil diocese of the OCU.
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