"The state demands more than the UOC can do": KDAiS professor warned the Church against self-proclaimed autocephaly

A professor of the Kiev Theological Seminary and Academy and an employee of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations, Serhiy Bortnyk, has warned the church leadership against self-proclaiming autocephalous status. In Bortnik’s opinion, such a step will be unambiguously perceived in world Orthodoxy as a split. The professor believes that to solve such an important issue requires pan-Orthodox consensus. He said this on the air of the YouTube channel «Viche».

«Administratively we are not accountable to the ROC, we do not have any correspondence, for example, with Patriarch Kirill. But canonically — in which I am in solidarity with the leadership of the UOC — we are unable to change our canonical status. That is, what the DESS and in particular Mr. Yelensky demand from us — to declare autocephaly — it would mean a schism, which will not be recognized by other Local Churches. In order to change the canonical status of the UOC, it is necessary, in particular, a meeting of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches or such a Council, which was held in Crete. That is, there must be certain actions at the pan-Orthodox level. Therefore, the state requires more than the UOC can do», — said Bortnik.

We will remind, recently deprived of the dignity of the former cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill Govorun told about the reasons why the Ukrainian Orthodox Church refuses to fulfill the requirements of the state to break canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. Hovorun believes that the UOC is afraid of falling into a schism and losing its subjectivity in world Orthodoxy.