"The status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the Council in Theophany is de facto autocephaly" - Archbishop Silvester

Rector of the Kyiv Theological Seminary and Academy Archbishop Sylvester (Stoychev) presented his own point of view on the issue of the current status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The bishop noted that after the Council in Theophany it can be considered that the UOC is in a state of actual, but not yet proclaimed autocephaly. He said this during a thematic lecture published on the YouTube channel «DNA».

«The status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the Council in Theophany is de facto autocephaly. Analogy: consider that we have the same status that the Russian Orthodox Church had from the moment when Metropolitan Jonah was elected to the Primacy — to the moment when, after more than 140 years, relations with Constantinople were established. What was that period? According to the logic of those who fear all things autocephalous, they must say that it was a schism. Otherwise, I don’t know what «gymnastics» of canons and logic one must undertake to say that it was not a schism. Or it is necessary to recognize that not everything is reduced to simple questions and simple answers,» — Archbishop Silvester said.

At the same time, the bishop believes that the state of the Church described by him cannot be considered a schism. As an example, he cites historical precedents with the autocephaly of the Russian and American Orthodox Churches, whose autocephaly was not recognized for a long time, but no one questioned the efficacy of the Sacraments in these Local Churches.

«There are unrecognized autocephalies, for example, the Orthodox Church in America. It is not recognized by the Greek-speaking Churches, but they recognize all the Sacraments and chiarotonies performed in this Church. There is an example of the Russian Orthodox Church, which received de facto autocephaly, which was recognized more than a hundred years after that, but I don’t think it can be called a schism. It can be called «unrecognized status.» And nobody thought in the Greek-speaking world that it was a schism or anything like that,» — he added.