Dumenko: Negotiating with UOC on its terms would mean surrender for OCU
The OCU head expressed confidence that his organization would emerge victorious on Ukraine’s “religious front.”
OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko said that holding talks with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on its terms would amount to surrender for his organization, Ukrinform reports.
According to Dumenko, the UOC leadership is allegedly blocking all interchurch contacts by demanding that the OCU end the forcible seizures of churches, address the issue of its lack of canonical episcopal consecrations, and acknowledge the shortcomings of its “autocephaly.”
“They want the OCU to admit that it is not an autocephalous church, that ‘we are nobody, and only then will they consider whether to negotiate with us,’” Dumenko said. “We will not agree to such terms of surrender.”
Continuing to frame dialogue in terms of military confrontation, the OCU leader added that he expected “victory on the religious front” and described the process of establishing the OCU as irreversible.
As the UOJ previously reported, Dumenko said he saw no point in uniting with the UOC because its members were “collaborators who hate everything Ukrainian.”
