The Crimean diocese did not want to recognize the decisions of the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Simferopol and Crimean diocese of the UOC publicly protested against yesterday’s decisions of the Council.
They are declaredthat “remain under the omophorion” of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and voted against the adoption amendments to the charter about the management of the UOC. The diocese said in a statement:
“Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea drew the attention of the Council members to the fact that the current canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church is optimal.”
Meanwhile, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine not ready for dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the terms put forward by the Council of the UOC, said the representative of the OCU Yevstratiy Zorya, who criticized the decisions of the Council of the UOC:
“The words about “independence and independence” are an invention back in 1990 to cover up dependence and lack of independence. There is autocephaly and autonomy. The Council did not say A WORD about autocephaly – even about the theoretical desire to achieve it.”
Independence in the management of the church was declared back in 1990, so nothing new was proclaimed at the Council, according to the OCU. The head of the OCU, Metropolitan Epiphanius, said that the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate continues to maintain unity with the Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev). Her declaration of independence is only a deceitful maneuver to change the attitude of Ukrainian society towards itself. Epiphanius said this on Saturday May 28:
“Independence and autonomy in the management of the church was declared back in 1990, so nothing fundamentally new was proclaimed at yesterday’s Council. But the final decision of this Council has not yet been published. We called on our colleagues from the UOC-MP to dialogue, and we call to more decisive action.
The first reaction of the ROC was cautious and not harsh. It was voiced by the chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and the Media of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Legoyda. However, Alexander Shchipkov, First Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Relations between the Church, Society and the Media, later said that by yesterday’s decision, the UOC Council was leading the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “into schism”, and “the process of separation from the Russian Orthodox Church was initiated by the US Department of State.”
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