Without unification of Ukrainian churches, OCU will not receive patriarchate status, - religious scholar Sagan

Oleksandr Sagan, a lobbyist for the OCU, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences, has named the condition under which the OCU will be able to achieve the status of patriarchate. The religious scholar claims that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople previously said that Ukraine could have a patriarchate, but for this it is necessary to complete the procedure of unification of Ukrainian churches. Sagan said this on the air of “Voice of Crimea”.

«There is a lot of speculation in the world about the split in Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and it really exists. The Moscow Patriarchate is built on ideological principles and is a politicized structure. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is built on different principles — on the principles of a local church. There is a great deal of internal resistance on both sides in terms of perception of each other. But without unification, and perhaps it will not happen so quickly, this Church cannot claim the status of the Patriarchate,” Sagan explained.

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with a request to grant the status of “patriarchate” to Ukraine, obviously referring to the OCU. The head of state believes that Ukrainians would positively perceive such a step by Phanar.