The Tomos of the OCU has no canonical value, - Metropolitan Luke

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia and Melitopol, a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, spoke about his attitude toward the Tomos of autocephaly of the OCU. The bishop noted that the Tomos of the OCU has no canonical value, since it was issued by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to people who do not have apostolic succession, and only 4 of the 16 Local Churches have recognized the OCU so far. The bishop’s words were reported by the press service of the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the UOC.

«The Tomos (for understanding, in our terms – a letter) is a beautifully designed exhibit, but it has no canonical value. It was granted in 2019 to the union of two structures: the UAOC (formerly the “Autocephalous Church”) and the UOC-KP (formerly the “Kyiv Patriarchate”), which until then had not been recognized by any of the Local Orthodox Churches, including Constantinople. Their hierarchs did not have priesthood from the point of view of canon law, that is, their hierarchs were not in holy orders, and all the sacraments and rites that took place there were considered invalid by the entire Church (the entire Orthodox world). The UOC believes that illegally ordained persons and their sacred rites cannot become canonical through an external decision. In simple terms: it is like giving a medical degree to a person who has no medical education—they will have a degree, but it will not make them a real doctor, and all their actions and prescriptions will not bring healing to the sick,» — the bishop noted.

In addition, Metropolitan Luke noted that the UOC cannot recognize the OCU as an equal structure due to the fact that most of the Local Churches opposed the creation of this organization, and the four that entered into communion with the Ukrainian schismatics did so under pressure from the Phanar and the United States.

«It is necessary to understand that the issue of recognizing the structure called the ‘OCU’ is not only an internal Ukrainian issue. Part of the Orthodox world has recognized the ‘OCU’, but this is not enough. I emphasize that this is only a very small part: four out of sixteen, and all of them are closely associated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and are under the influence of American government agencies, as confirmed by reports in the American media. Most of the Local Churches still do not recognize the OCU, and some directly consider its creation to be a mistake or even a schism. For us, this is evidence that the decision was not conciliar, but rather political and hasty. For the UOC, this confirms that the Tomos did not bring unity, but rather a new schism—and therefore the UOC cannot accept it as a “decision of the universal Church.” The UOC does not recognize the Tomos not because it is against Ukraine, but because it considers this path to be uncanonical in terms of its content and manner of granting, and divisive. We believe that the unity of the Church is possible—but not through pressure and conflict, but through repentance, dialogue, and love,» — the hierarch emphasized.

We recall that recently, Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of Chalcedon, a hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, called the Phanar’s decision to create the OCU and grant the Tomos of autocephaly to this organization correct. He is convinced that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has the right to grant autocephaly where it deems necessary, since it is the “mother church” for most of the Local Churches of the world.