"Against the Tomos": A Cleric of the OCU Held Сult Еvents in Denmark

A cleric of the OCU, Mykhailo Omelyan, recently returned from Denmark, where — at the invitation of Yevhen Haivoronskyi, head of the Association in Support of the OCU in that country — he conducted a series of cult events among Ukrainian displaced persons. This was reported by the website «Ukraina Pravoslavna».

Mykhailo Omelyan “served liturgies” in Helsingør and Copenhagen, visited settlements where people from Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Kherson regions now live, and participated in an interconfessional gathering on the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Spirit.

According to the cleric, many of the displaced persons allegedly «already understand well the difference between the Ukrainian Church and the Moscow Patriarchate» and, when visiting churches, «ask who the primate is», since they «are waiting specifically for a representative of Metropolitan Epiphaniy».

The cleric also stated that he prayed for Ukraine in three languages — Ukrainian, Greek, and English.

It is known that, according to the Tomos granted to the OCU by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2019, its jurisdiction is strictly limited to the territory of Ukraine. Conducting services outside Ukraine without coordination with the local diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate directly contradicts the provision on the «territorial boundaries of autocephaly».

It is also worth noting that Greek theologian Vasilis Touloumtzis has harshly criticized the granting of autocephaly to the OCU, calling it an organization that «has a Tomos, but is not a Church».