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"Tomos
must be given to the UOC-MP". Many people in Ukraine and around
the world are watching events taking place in our church life. Kiev
rages on news from Constantinople, the word "tomos" is
transmitted word by word. Only
one event separates Ukrainians from the historical moment of the
proclamation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church - the unifying
Synod of Ukrainian churches (UOC-MP, UOC-KP, and the UAOC). In
it the bishops must elect a new primate who will serve in the
Orthodox world in the largest church with regard to the number of
parishes. To
make things happen, the irreconcilable "canonical" and
"schismatics" should be united in that Synod.
However,
it is difficult to understand how these roles are now
distributed. Metropolitan of Cherkasy and Kaniv Sofrony
is a bishop of the UOC-MP. His authority among the bishops and
among the faithful is very high. He is an example of the revival
of the spiritual life of Cherkassy, the most aesthetic,
according to the ruler of the region.
Metropolitan
Sofrony is also known for being a consistent advocate for the local
Autocephalous Orthodox Church; he well remembered the period of
atheism, the renaissance and split of the churches, even to its
smallest details. Bishop Sofrony speaks several languages; he
participated in the construction of hundreds of temples in Cherkassy
region, 50 of them built on their own projects, are professionally
fond of iconography and of the translation of the Holy Bible and the
Liturgy in Ukrainian; and he has students all over the world.
The
views that the Bishop has expressed in the conversation with the
"Glavkom" are extremely important for the preparation of
the unifying Synod, the culmination of which will be the receipt of
Thomos and the establishment of an independent autocephalous
church. These thoughts should be heard in Ukraine and in
Constantinople. And the meeting with the bishop began with the
words of St. Paul the apostle from the "Rule Book", who
himself translated for more than a year: "When I pray in a
stranger's language, though my spirit prays, but my mind remains
without fruit".
