"The Russian Church prevents the recognition of the OCU": Dumenko complains about ROC in the US

The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, complained that the Russian Orthodox Church is preventing the recognition of the OCU in Ukraine and abroad. According to Dumenko, the Russian Orthodox Church persuades the Local Churches not to recognize the autocephaly of the OCU. Despite this, the OCU is doing “everything possible” to increase the number of its believers in the country. He said this in his welcoming speech at a reception at the American Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in New York, according to the OCU website.

“We, as a Church, are also waging our struggle to establish the unity of Ukrainians in the one Orthodox Church. But both the Russian Federation and the Russian Church create many obstacles on this path. Both inside and outside the country. In particular, from the outside, they prevent us from having other churches recognize our autocephalous status,” – Dumenko said.

He added that despite the “obstacles,” the OCU is doing everything possible to ensure that as many Ukrainians as possible become members of the organization he leads.

“However, from the first days of my election as Primate, I have always said, I say and will say that our doors are open – the doors of our Church, our hearts – for dialogue with our brothers who are still part of the Russian Church. However, unfortunately, our brethren are in a state of expectation that perhaps the war will end with a victory not for Ukraine. That is why they still do not respond to our appeals. We are doing everything in our power to attract as many Ukrainians as possible to the family of the recognized autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and we place our hope in God. The Lord knows best what is more useful for our salvation. But we know the ultimate goal – Ukraine will win, Ukraine will be a strong democratic, European state. And all Orthodox Ukrainians will be united in a single Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” – he added.

As reported, the former bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who joined the OCU in 2018, Oleksandr Drabynko, admitted that the OCU seizes churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, often doing so “illegally.” Drabinko is convinced that such behavior by OCU representatives does not contribute to the unification process of the two denominations. In his opinion, if this did not happen, the dialog between the UOC and the OCU would be established faster.