The belief that the UOC is the only canonical Church in Ukraine is Russian propaganda - Hovorun

The defrocked former cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Govorun, believes that the statement that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the only canonical church in Ukraine is a product of Russian propaganda. According to Govorun, after the creation of the OCU by Patriarch Bartholomew, the church split was overcome in Ukraine, and therefore, representatives of the former UOC-KP and UAOC also became “graced”. He said this in an interview with the Faces of Independence project.

“Many people believe that this (UOC – ed.) is the only canonical Church in Ukraine. This belief is the result of propaganda, including from Russia, which promotes the idea that the OCU is not canonical, not gracious, and not salvific. For people who go to church, this is a very important thing. This is, in fact, the reason why they go to church. And only a very small part of people, a small faction, are those who go to this church because it is “Russian.” This idea is important to them and they are ideologically charged people. But there are just microscopically few of them,” – Govorun said.

Hovorun added that after the creation of the OCU by Patriarch Bartholomew, the church split in Ukraine was overcome, and the UOC became part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Since then, in his opinion, former representatives of the UOC-KP and the UAOC have become canonical clergy.

“I served under Patriarch Kirill for ten years. I believed and still believe that until 2018, the UOC was the only canonical Church in Ukraine until the Ecumenical Patriarchate intervened. And until it intervened in this situation, when it canceled the decision to transfer the Kyiv Metropolis to the Moscow Patriarchate of 1686. He gave the opportunity to those who were part of this Kyiv Metropolis to create an autocephalous church, which took place at the St. Sophia Cathedral (Unification Council of 2018 – ed.), and then to receive the Tomos of autocephaly in January 2019, respectively. After that, there were two canonical churches in Ukraine. These are the OCU and the UOC. And the UOC, not as a structure, but as an association of communities, is part of the Ecumenical Church (Patriarchate of Constantinople – ed.). The split was overcome. Until that time, until 2018, the split existed, and I believe that at that time the UOC-KP and the UAOC were not canonical,” – the ex-archimandrite added.

Earlier we reported that the hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nektarios of Kerkyra, once again spoke in support of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The bishop emphasized that the island of Corfu, which is part of his metropolis, accepts exclusively clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, refusing to concelebrate with representatives of the OCU.