ROC envies OCU because it does not have Tomos, - religious scholar Filipovych

OCU lobbyist in the media, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of the Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Lyudmyla Filipovych said that the Russian Orthodox Church envies the OCU because the organization headed by Dumenko received the Tomos, which, according to her, the ROC does not have. Filipovich said that the Russian Orthodox Church has long been in the status of an unrecognized patriarchate, having actually forced the Patriarch of Constantinople to recognize its autocephaly. Filipovych said this in an interview with Hromadske Radio.

“The Russians are jealous that Ukraine has chosen the canonical path. Because we did not imprison the patriarch, did not buy his blessing with sables and gold. Ukrainians have suffered for this desire for autocephaly,” – Filipovych said.

The religious scholar also mentioned the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, pointing out that the Charter of Independence and Autonomy of the UOC was allegedly personally issued to the former head of the UOC Filaret Denisenko, who now heads the schismatic organization, the UOC-KP.

“What happened is that the church that was not recognized before has now become a recognized church. And the church that was everything and was accepted at high levels has become virtually nobody today. Previously, Ukrainian state leaders used to go to the UOC-MP on Christmas and Easter. Although its status is not defined, it is not spelled out, there is no such document. They refer to the charter of Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox Church on the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but it was not they who issued the charter. It was personally received by Metropolitan Filaret,” – the religious scholar added.

Earlier, the director of the International Institute of Athos Heritage, religious scholar and lobbyist of the OCU, Serhiy Shumylo, admitted that the process of recognizing the OCU by the Local Orthodox Churches has actually stopped. The reason for this is the failure to fulfill the main task that was initially assigned to the OCU, namely, the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.