Archbishop Sylvester: Those who hate the idea of UOC independence have a common denominator

The hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, Archbishop Sylvester (Stoichev), speaking about the issue of autocephaly of the UOC, drew attention to the fact that opponents of this idea, despite their commitment to different views, have a common interest – to level the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya as much as possible. According to the hierarch, this is necessary in order to influence the UOC’s aspirations for autocephaly. He said this in a comment to Archdeacon Andriy Palchuk, a cleric of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC, on Facebook.

“There are decisions of the Council. They are recorded in writing. They can be read. These decisions are quite unambiguous: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church withdraws from the Moscow Patriarchate. It expresses its disagreement with the activities of Patriarch Kirill and, of course, all references to ties with the Russian Orthodox Church were removed from the Charter. That is why His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy repeatedly and in a number of documents, for example, (in a letter – ed.) to the head of the SES – then Olena Bohdan – then, on the third anniversary of the Council in Feofaniya, in a written address, then in a video filmed at St. Panteleimon Monastery, he repeats these decisions of the Council. Therefore, anyone who really wants to know about the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya can do so very easily,” the hierarch noted.

Archbishop Sylvester drew attention to the fact that in the fight against the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya, two completely opposite groups have united, including those who are within the UOC and constant opponents of the Church. In his opinion, this suggests certain thoughts.

“Surprisingly, there is a common denominator for those who hate the very idea of independence and autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the one hand, and on the other hand, are total critics of the UOC. I mean some of our opponents in society or among officials. They have the same interest – to completely neutralize the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya. I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but in this case, two seemingly opposite camps have come together in a common interest: to speak as negatively as possible about the Council in Feofaniya, to interpret its decisions as negatively as possible, and to do everything to undermine the authority and position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian state and society. I think this speaks for itself,” the Archbishop added.

Earlier, the spokesman for the OCU, Yevstratiy Zoria , expressed his opinion on the discussions about the possible autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that arose among the episcopate of the UOC. Zorya is convinced that the “belated disputes” about autocephaly among the hierarchs of the canonical Church will not lead to a proper result, but will only help to “let off steam” and create the appearance of vigorous activity in this direction.