"If not for Onuphrius and Antony, everything would have been different": Religionist appointed "guilty" in the ban of the UOC

Ludmyla Filipovych, a lobbyist of the OCU in the mass media, Doctor of Philosophy, professor at the Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, said that Metropolitan Onufry and Metropolitan Antony (Pakanich), the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, are to blame for the legislative ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Filipovich, if these people were not the ones “leading the Church,” the situation would have developed differently. She said in an interview with the publication “High Castle”.

“Even if the court decides to terminate the UOC-MP, and it will be deprived of the status of a legal entity, the Kiev Metropolitanate will not take the step I just mentioned. If there were other people at the head of this church, not Antony (Pakanich) and not Onuphrius (Berezovsky), perhaps history would have turned out a little differently. But the mentioned hierarchs are so entangled in their ties with the Russian Orthodox Church that they will not back down. They were born in Ukraine, but they never became Ukrainians,” – the religious scholar said.

At the same time Filipovich admitted that one of the reasons for the Church’s refusal to fulfill the requirements of the state is the fear of being in a schism. That’s why, in her opinion, the UOC delays the process of “breaking relations with Moscow” in every possible way.

“They are afraid that in case of leaving the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church, they will voluntarily put themselves in a state of “non-canonicity”, in the “gray zone” in which the Kyiv Patriarchate has been for 30 years. The rulers of the UOC-MP are afraid of losing even this, not quite clear current state, proclaimed at their council in Theophany on May 27, 2022 – a state that is called “autonomy, independence in governance.” What this is, no one understands. There is no such status in the Orthodox tradition. There is either autonomy or autocephaly…. I suspect that this situation suits the leadership of the UOC-MP. It turns out that they are between heaven and earth – they have not broken ties with Moscow, and they seem to be present in Ukraine…. I do not see any intentions of the UOC-MP to change its status,” – she added.