We cannot recognize the validity of ordinations of OCU members because of some paper - hierarch of the UOC

Rector of the Kyiv Theological Seminary and Academy Archbishop Sylvester (Stoychev) commented on the issue of the validity of priestly ordinations of representatives of the OCU. The hierarch claims that the ordinations of a significant part of the OCU ministers cannot be recognized due to canonical discrepancies and the canonical practice of the Church. In addition, the hierarch is convinced that the existence of the Tomos on the autocephaly of the OCU can in no way be a reason to change the attitude to this issue. He told about this in a podcast on the YouTube channel DNA.

«The topic of the validity of chirotonies is one of the most important. Those who believe that the issue of chirotoniye is far-fetched and should be dismissed are constantly looking for some historical parallels. It is either the history with ROCOR, or the history with the Bulgarians and the like. However, in fact, none of these historical analogies are similar to the history of the UAOC and the Kyiv Patriarchate. Because even when there is an actual schism, still: banning is one thing, deprivation of dignity is another, and anathematizing is a third. Here, for example, is the situation in Bulgaria. There, indeed, church interdicts were imposed, but incomparable to those that were imposed on representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate and UAOC. In the history with ROCOR, although the Moscow Patriarchate imposed interdicts, but not on everyone, but only on those who led the movement. This, if I am not mistaken, is eight bishops. But except for the ban on ministry, they were not subjected to more complicated punishments: deprivation of dignity or anathema,» the bishop noted.

The Rector of KTAIS pointed out that at one time all the Local Churches agreed that the hierarchy of the Ukrainian schism had lost its canonicity. Moreover, he cited examples when ministers of the UOC-KP were re-ordinated in cases when they wanted to continue their ministry in Europe as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

«The problem is that all the Local Orthodox Churches have decided that the hierarchy of the Kyiv Patriarchate has lost its canonicity. And now to say that there is a different approach to the issue is not as easy as it seems. I personally know an example of a priest who was in the Kyiv Patriarchate, received a ministry there, moved to Europe and decided to move to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This was in the early 2000s. When he wrote to Constantinople to be accepted, the decision of the Phanar, do you know what it was? Re-ordained! And he was re-ordained both as a deacon and a priest. And how can we now say that the chastinations (at the OCU, — ed.) are valid? Why all of a sudden? On the basis of what decisions? […] In fact, in the Church, no matter what they tell us, it has never happened that today we do not recognize (chastinations, — ed.), and tomorrow we do. How? Because of a piece of paper? We are the Orthodox Church and we have sacred actions for everything. Even when we eat, we recite «Our Father» and put the sign of the cross around the food. How, without sacral action, was priestly grace restored? By means of what? «, — noted Archbishop Silvester.

The UOC hierarch is particularly indignant at the fact that in 2018 the Patriarchate of Constantinople accepted the so-called appeals of the former heads of the UOC-KP and UAOC and resumed them «in the dignity», without even taking into account the fact that the former head of the UAOC Makary Maletich, before the evasion into schism, was a clergyman, not a bishop.

«My position is as follows: there is a problem and, unfortunately, it has not been resolved in such a way as to change our minds. In addition, in the case of appeals Filaret Denisenko (head of the UOC-KP, — ed.) and Makary Maletich (former head of the UAOC, — ed.) said that they were illegally deposed and therefore they are renewed and recognized in the dignity in which they were before its deprivation. But pardon me! And in what dignity was Macarius Maletich before the schism? (Macarius Maletich, before he went into schism in 1989, was in the dignity of an ordinary clergyman — ed.). If Filaret before the schism was a metropolitan, and in this case then how?», — he noted.

Recall, recently Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria commented on the situation around the Ukrainian church conflict and the topic of the establishment of the OCU, pointing to the presence of «significant canonical obstacles» for its recognition. According to him, the majority of local Orthodox Churches have not recognized this structure, and the church issue in Ukraine is closely linked to geopolitical conflicts.