Religious scholar: Metropolitan Onufriy will not go for rapprochement with Ecumenical Patriarchate and OCU because of his specific church beliefs

OCU lobbyist and freelance expert of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Andriy Smirnov spoke about why the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church do not join the OCU. One of the reasons for the refusal, Smirnov believes, is the high authority of the Primate of the UOC among the bishops of the Church. According to Smirnov, because of the position of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine will not go to rapprochement with the OCU or the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The religious scholar said this in an interview with the publication “Texty”.

«There is a pro-Ukrainian minority among the bishops, but it is not independent. It is guided by Metropolitan Onufriy as an influential personality. Now there is no alternative to Metropolitan Onufriy who could lead this pro-Ukrainian part of the UOC-MP. That is, these bishops probably sympathize with Ukraine and pray for our soldiers, but quietly. They are not ready to move to the OCU one by one, because again, they know that they will lose their diocese. If a particular diocese moves to the OCU, a new bishop will be appointed immediately. And most parishes will follow the new bishop because they recognize Onufriy’s authority. Onufriy is indeed an authority for many bishops, priests and believers, and his position is known: to wait and wait for the end of the war. He does not make sudden moves, and this passive position irritates many people. But he will not go for rapprochement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the OCU because of his specific church beliefs,” Smirnov said.

Earlier, the defrocked former cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church , Kirill Govorun, said that the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the OCU according to the scenario supported by Epiphany Dumenko’s organization is incapable. In his opinion, this is confirmed by the fact that the religious communities of the UOC do not move to the OCU even despite the anti-church law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, so it is necessary to develop another model for both denominations, under which the UOC and the OCU can coexist.