In
an interview distributed by the Information and Educational Department
of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, Administrative
Director of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP), has claimed that the
Local Orthodox Churches are negative about the granting of autocephaly
to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“We
are a canonical Church and we are in constant contact with all the
Local Churches of the world, whose Primates and hierarchs follow our
events and even have requested our Church to express their vision.
Therefore, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy communicated to the
Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches the position of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church regarding these initiatives and their possible
consequences. Given the constant communication we have with the Local
Churches, and also the first reaction that we already know, the idea of
provision of the "Tomos on Autocephaly" to dissenters bypassing the
canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not have support. The leaders
and representatives of the Churches, bishops, metropolitans, and
hierarchs of the Orthodox countries with whom we, as the canonical
Church, have full, official and personal communication, are surprised,
worried and outraged, and express their disagreement,” said Metropolitan
Anthony.
He
argues that in the negotiations with the representatives of the UOC-MP,
the hierarchs, including the Greek bishops, including those belonging
to the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate, extend their
support to the UOC-MP and ask to convey the idea that there is no ground
for worrying, because the Local Churches do not approve of these
initiatives that can lead to great problems in universal Orthodoxy.”
“This
issue is currently being solved not in Ukraine, but beyond its borders
and depends on all Local Churches. And I do not believe that the
position of the Church of the Constantinople itself will contradict this
general Orthodox sentiment,” Metropolitan Antony stressed and stated:
Local Churches will be guided in this matter by the criterion of the
benefit to Universal Orthodoxy, the church canons, and not the political
interests of the authorities.
According to him, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine instructed the
ambassadors in the Orthodox countries to meet with the Heads of Churches
in order to convince them to support the initiatives of the
authorities. According to the Metropolitan, recently Minister for
Foreign Affairs P. A. Klimkin during his visit to Egypt met with the
Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria. Therefore, according to him, there is
nothing surprising that the UOC (MP) has brought its position to the
attention of the Primates of the Local Churches.