“Without preconditions": Epifanius urged the Primate of the UOC to start a dialog on unification

The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, has published an open appeal to the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, calling for a dialogue on unification. Dumenko believes that the conditions previously set by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for starting a dialogue with the OCU are unrealizable, so the process should begin “without preconditions.” The appeal was published on the OCU website.

“We know that earlier you announced three requirements for such a dialogue, namely, that we reject the decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and that we do not hear requests from those who make these decisions and want to be united as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. But for objective reasons beyond our control, we cannot agree to such demands, because they are contrary to the truth and would mean for us a renunciation of God, who gave our hierarchs and clergy the grace of the priesthood, and of the Church of Christ, which, through the hands and work of the Ecumenical Patriarch, has benefited Ukraine. Therefore, we lovingly ask you and the hierarchs who are with you to agree to begin our dialogue without preconditions. This is exactly how the dialogue that Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine blessed and supported, and which the Patriarchate of Moscow destroyed, began without preconditions. Let all those who truly cherish the memory of Metropolitan Volodymyr follow his example in this,” – the statement reads.