A source from the UOC told under what conditions the Church will agree to a dialog with the OCU, - mass media

An unnamed source from among the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church told the BBC under what conditions the Church will enter into a dialogue with representatives of the OCU. According to him, in order to start a dialogue, it is necessary for the OCU to declare a moratorium on the seizure of UOC churches, and a truce between the parties. This is reported in the publication.

It is reported that the UOC discussed with Metropolitan Onufriy Epiphany’s statement about “negotiations without conditions”. The letter was called bold, and there were different opinions about the dialogue. Some representatives of the UOC episcopate said that it was necessary to ask the head of state to organize a dialogue.

“Ukraine somehow agrees to talk with Russia, with the enemy, but here we need to talk with our own people, not enemies. We need some kind of roundtable or something like that, so that the president initiates the creation of a negotiating group. But on the condition that the seizure of churches stops. And on our part, we should not call them schismatics or graceless. That is, a temporary truce was declared for the sake of unity,” – suggests the BBC interlocutor in the UOC.

Regarding the agreement with the Patriarch of Constantinople, the source believes that this requires the permission of the Council of Bishops of the UOC, and this is not currently being discussed and the Church leadership will not make such moves. A significant part of the so-called “right wing” is opposed to negotiations with the OCU. Among them is the most public Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, who has already written a letter to the Primate of the UOC urging him not to negotiate with the OCU.

Earlier, we reported that the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, appealed to the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, in connection with the recent call by the head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, to unite with the organization he leads. Metropolitan Luke believes that the recognition of the OCU “without conditions” does not comply with the canonical order of the Church and cannot be dictated solely by political expediency.