Bartholomew: Tomos of OCU ensures order and church unity

On October 14, 2024, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople delivered a speech at an official dinner hosted in his honor by the Holy Archdiocese of Australia in Melbourne. During his speech at the event, the head of Phanar drew attention to the granting of the Tomos of autocephaly to Ukrainian schismatic groups. Bartholomew believes that this decision “ensured order and church unity”. This is reported by Orthodox Times.

It is reported that the head of Phanar stressed the need for dialogue as the only way to reconciliation and peace, recognizing “the leading role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in promoting inter-Christian and interfaith dialogue.” The patriarch noted the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as the most important step towards preserving unity within Orthodoxy.

Earlier, the former press secretary of the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko, and now a well-known lobbyist for the OCU in the media and a cleric of this organization, Andriy Kovalev, said that the OCU risks losing the Tomos of autocephaly granted by Patriarch Bartholomew. Kovalev attributes this to the fact that the OCU does not fulfill all the conditions of this document, the ultimate goal of which, in his opinion, is to unite all Orthodox Ukrainians into one religious structure.