"It is natural and normal for a large Local Church to strive for autocephaly" - Rector of KTAIS

Rector of the Kyiv Theological Seminary and Academy Archbishop Sylvester (Stoychev) gave a lecture on the status of autocephaly in the history and experience of world Orthodoxy. Answering the questions of the event held in Vinnitsa, the hierarch noted that the desire for autocephaly cannot be regarded as a negative phenomenon. At the same time, the hierarch said that those who think otherwise are guided by «imperial ecclesiology». The words of the hierarch are reported by the media.

«It is natural and normal for a large Local Church to strive for autocephaly. This is an internal desire of the Church, and it has been voiced more than once: at the Council of 1990-1992, and even at the Jubilee Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. The circumstances were different, but the fact is that the desire for autocephaly is the norm. I believe that if a priest opposes the autocephaly of his Church, which has every reason to do so, it is possible only in one case — if he professes another system, another ecclesiology, an imperial one. In such a model one empire and one centralized Church are built. But in Orthodox ecclesiology autocephaly is the norm of existence of each local Church. A person who thinks ecclesiologically, not as an official or ideologue, cannot be an opponent of autocephaly. Otherwise, he goes against the very nature of the Church, » Archbishop Silvester said.

Earlier, the rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archbishop Silvester (Stoychev) considered possible options for achieving autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The hierarch is convinced that an appeal for autocephalous status to the Moscow or Constantinople patriarchate is untenable. In this regard, the Rector of KTAiS proposes to bring to the attention of representatives of other Local Churches the decisions taken at the Council in Theophany in 2022, which, in his opinion, should harmonize the autocephalous status of the UOC in the future.