Metropolitan Pavel on the Council in Feofaniya: "In what way are we schismatics?"

Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed), a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and abbot of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, expressed bewilderment at the fact that there are bishops within the UOC, priests, and believers who call the decisions of the Council in Feofaniya “schismatic.” According to the hierarch, the Council did not violate any dogmas, and those who believe otherwise are “sowing discord.”

“This is a historic Council. […] And there is no need today to sow discord among people. To my great regret, some of our bishops today do not meet the standards of a bishop, for ‘woe to the man through whom temptation comes.’ And people believe them. Here come some ‘wavering’ priests and say, ‘You are schismatics!’ In what way are we schismatics? Have we violated dogmatic teaching? No. And today I view negatively those bishops, those people who call both us and His Beatitude schismatics,” the metropolitan noted.

As a reminder, earlier, Metropolitan Feodosy (Snigiryov) of Cherkasy and Kaniv stated that the Council in Feofaniya in 2022 took place under pressure from the security services. The bishop noted that, prior to participating in the Council, UOC hierarchs were threatened by people “in uniform,” who demanded that they make the “right decisions.”