If not for Tomos, we would have reconciled with OCU long ago, - UOC hierarch

The vicar of the Chernihiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Nikodim (Pustovgar) of Liubezh, said that if the Ukrainian schismatics had not received the Tomos of autocephaly in 2018, the unification with the UOC would have taken place long ago and without the problems that are present in the relationship now. The bishop said this in a commentary to Glavkom.

“It’s just that someone at the top of the government needs to understand that politics has nothing to do with it. If someone had not interfered with these papers (granting the Tomos – ed.), reconciliation would have already been achieved,” – the hierarch said.

Archbishop Nikodim added that due to the fact that the OCU is aggressively seizing the churches of the UOC, the dialogue between the denominations is becoming almost unrealistic. He is convinced that due to everything that is happening now with regard to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the issue of dialogue and unification will be postponed for many years.

“The attitude that was there before will not be there. Because now the generation of those bishops who saw their churches taken away from them and laws violated must die out,” – Archbishop Nikodim added.

Earlier, we reported that the head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, spoke about the adoption of Law No. 3894 in the Verkhovna Rada, aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Epiphany called the event a “historic decision” and once again called on representatives of the UOC to start a “dialogue without preconditions.”