“If Ukrainian churches unite, they will receive the status of patriarchate” - MP Pavlenko

Rostyslav Pavlenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity party and one of the ideologists of the Tomos of the OCU, believes that the only way the Ukrainian Orthodox Church can choose to deal with the ban is to unite with the OCU. The MP is convinced that if this does not happen, the UOC will lose its canonicity. He spoke about this in an interview with the Ukrainian News publication.

“This process (of unification with the OCU, ed.) may be different, this process may have its own logic and stages, and this process must be mutually agreed upon. Here it is a church issue, where the state must guarantee that it will be peaceful and without violence, and the Ecumenical Patriarch has repeatedly expressed his readiness to provide both advisory and mediation assistance so that all this is in accordance with canon law with maximum consideration of all interests, and most importantly the main interest — the unification of all Orthodox Christians in Ukraine,” — the MP argues.

Pavlenko believes that if the UOC and the OCU were to unite, they could jointly claim the status of patriarchate due to the common number of bishops and parishes.

“The Ukrainian Church, in terms of its size and influence, can obtain the status of patriarchate, but this requires, as has been said many times, two things. The first is the unification of all (or the absolute majority of) Ukrainian Orthodox in one church. And the second, which follows from the first, is recognition by other Orthodox churches. So the prize is quite big, and the biggest prize, of course, is the unity of the Ukrainian Orthodox,” — Pavlenko added.

Earlier, Rostislav Pavlenko made a statement on the possible creation of an exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, according to the ideologues of the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, should become an alternative for the UOC after the adoption of Bill 8371. Pavlenko claims that no alternative options exist or are being considered.