OCU admits that there are no mechanisms for dialogue with UOC

Volodymyr Vakin, a lecturer at the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy of the OCU, took part in an international conference on the crisis in world Orthodoxy. During the event, held on December 9-10, 2024 in Sweden, the OCU representative made a presentation in which he acknowledged the organization’s inability to start a dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Vakin, the reason for this is the lack of dialogue between the Primates of the Local Churches and the dubious status of inter-Orthodox assemblies that do not make joint decisions. Part of Vakin’s report is published on the website of the Sophia Brotherhood.

“The ecclesiological aspect of the split in Ukrainian Orthodoxy has a clearly defined global dimension. Given the participation in the conflict of the Russian Orthodox Church, which openly supports military aggression against Ukraine, we are witnessing a confrontation between at least two Local Churches. Currently, there is no effective mechanism for resolving conflicts between the Local Orthodox Churches. This indicates a crisis of the supreme authority that coordinates the coexistence of the Local Churches in the Catholic Ecumenical Church. The last Ecumenical Council was held more than a thousand years ago, and the Pan-Orthodox Council in Crete did not receive the necessary status. In this context, a whole range of unresolved issues arise — from the statute of the Pan-Orthodox Council as the supreme governing institution of the Orthodox Church, whose decisions must be made by all Local Churches, to the very method of voting. The inability to resolve these issues already shows signs of mutations in the ecclesiological forms of conciliarity within the Ecumenical Church, which leads to the creation of a model of coexistence between the Local Churches based on the principle of confederation. In such a scenario, the Eucharistic communion of the Local Churches expresses not so much the ontological unity of the Catholic Church as the Body of Christ as the existence of proper church-diplomatic relations,” — the report says.

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the state would develop a dialogue with all religious organizations except the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The President added that Ukraine will develop an ideal model of church-state relations, adding that the time of the UOC is over.