Council in Theophany was not free - hierarch of the UOC

Metropolitan of Cherkasy and Kanev Feodosiy (Snigiryov) said that the Council in Feofaniya, held in 2022, was held under pressure from special services. The bishop noted that the hierarchs of the UOC, before participating in the Council, were threatened by people “in shoulder straps”, demanding them to make “necessary decisions”. About this he told on the air of a podcast on the YouTube channel “DNA”.

“The Council in Theophany must be approved after the general Council (Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, – ed.). Therefore, the Council (in Theophany, – ed.) can be wrong. Moreover, I say again, it was not a free Council. Not free! A number of hierarchs were told directly: “If you do not accept anything there in Theophany, when you go there, you can not return to the diocese.”. It happened. People “in epaulettes” spoke. When I told one high-ranking hierarch about this situation, I was told: “You can not go to the Council if you are afraid. But is that a solution? Yes, as a human being, I am certainly afraid, but how can I not go to the Council, where the fate of my Church will be decided. I went. And many went. However, the Council with a “gun to your head” can not make epochal decisions,” – said the bishop.

We would like to remind you that Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), Metropolitan of Boryspil and Brovary presented an analysis of the history of autocephalous movements in Ukraine in the twentieth century, coming to the conclusion that they were invariably connected with political shifts rather than with the needs of the church. According to the hierarch, the desire for autocephaly was seen primarily as an attribute of statehood rather than a means for salvation, which led to schisms and historical instability.