Epiphanius urges Onufriy to resume dialogue on unity of Orthodox Church in Ukraine
The primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Metropolitan Epiphanius, calls on the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Metropolitan Onufriy, to resume dialogue on the unity of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"I wish to renew the appeal on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to you, Vladyka, to the hierarchs, clergy and faithful who recognize you as their Primate: for the sake of the good and affirmation of the Orthodox Christian faith in Ukraine, for the sake of the Church of Christ, for the sake of protecting the truth from attempts to distort it, to immediately begin a dialogue," Epiphany's appeal says.
He noted that for a long time, for various reasons, both of ecclesiastical origin and to a greater extent external, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine experienced divisions, but the Cathedral in St. Sophia on December 15, 2018 made all the decisions for which it was convened and created a solid canonical basis for the only Orthodox Church in Ukraine, as a Local, it received a Tomos of autocephaly.
According to him, canon law and order, as well as the Tomos, determine that all Orthodox church institutions within Ukraine should be in organizational and jurisdictional unity, as one and the only Local Orthodox Church.
"However, with great sorrow and pain, we all witness that, first of all, because of the position of the Moscow Patriarchate, some Orthodox have not yet heard the call of unity directed to them and have not fulfilled this duty to be united. But even among the Ukrainian Orthodox who are not yet in the family of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the number of those who want to achieve this unity is growing," the metropolitan added.
In this regard, the OCU again appealed to Onufriy, bishops and priests to start a dialogue on unity without any preconditions.
"We know that three demands for such a dialogue were announced earlier on your part … But for objective and independent reasons, we cannot agree with such requirements," he stressed.
Thus, Epiphany calls on the UOC (MP) to agree to start a dialogue without preconditions.