The Romanian Church has no right to create any associations in Ukraine outside the jurisdiction of the OCU, - Epiphanius Dumenko

The head of the OCU, Epiphanius Dumenko, has launched a scathing attack on the Romanian Orthodox Church. Speaking out against the establishment of the Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the Romanian Church, Dumenko stated that the Romanian Patriarchate has no right to create parallel jurisdictions on the territory of Ukraine without the consent of the OCU. He is convinced that the OCU is fully capable of independently meeting the religious needs of Romanian-speaking believers within the Romanian vicariate, which was previously established within the organization. He stated this in a report read at a meeting of OCU hierarchs.

“Among a number of other challenges that have been discussed so far, in particular, there are attempts to create a Romanian church jurisdiction in Ukraine without the consent of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is a direct violation of canonical principles and falls under the condemnation of ethnophyletism by the Great Council of Constantinople in 1872. We once again emphasize the principles that have been repeatedly confirmed in our previous decisions: the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is ready and willing to grant ethnic Romanians in Ukraine, within its jurisdiction, the same rights of church self-government that Ukrainians have in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Attempts to create some kind of jurisdiction without taking into account the canonical rules and norms of the Tomos of Autocephaly will not bring good to Ukrainian Romanians, but will only deepen problems and divisions. If even in Moldova, where there is no linguistic or ethnic division, despite all the efforts of the Romanian Patriarchate over the past three decades, a deep ecclesiastical division continues to exist, then this challenge is all the more relevant for Ukraine. As a Church, we have repeatedly assured representatives of the Romanian Patriarchate of our position in writing. Therefore, we expect constructive steps on their part to establish dialogue and develop a model of spiritual care for the needs of Romanians in Ukraine that is acceptable to both Local Churches and canonically correct,” – said the head of the OCU.

Recall earlier, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which took place in Bucharest from July 1 to 2, 2025, published a press release on the results of its work, in which, among other things, it criticized the Ukrainian government for refusing to register the structure of the Romanian Patriarchate – the Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine – on the territory of the country. The Romanian Orthodox Church considers this decision by the Ukrainian authorities to be “abuse.”