It should be noted that the lobbyist of the OCU in the media and a freelance expert of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, religious scholar Andriy Smirnov, said that despite the adoption of Bill No. 8371 in the second reading, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not unite with the OCU. Smirnov believes that the reason for this is the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
Metropolitan Onufry will never make any concessions or negotiations - representative of the OCU
Avrahamiy Lotysh, an employee of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve and, concurrently, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery of the OCU, said that the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, will never negotiate or make concessions regarding the OCU. Lotish believes that this is due to the fact that Metropolitan Onufriy was formed in “Moscow Orthodoxy.” He said this in an interview with Pryamyy TV channel.
“You know, if there was a desire – the main thing in the life of every person is desire – they can change everything, realize everything, and when there is no such desire, this will not happen, and their leader, Metropolitan Onufriy, who was formed as a person of pro-Moscow Orthodoxy, will never make any concessions, any negotiations. Moreover, we have a delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. We had meetings with Metropolitan Onufriy and representatives of the Synod in Feofania, but we can understand that no dialogue will take place on their part. Why? Because they consider it unnecessary to meet with representatives of the OCU, that is, with us, at this time. They put forward their own conditions, as always, and only after that will they possibly meet. And, in principle, in my opinion, as long as Metropolitan Onufriy heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, there will be no changes in this church,” – Lotysh said.
Read also
