UOC Metropolitan Viktor (Kotsaba) said about "internal pressure" in holding the Council in Theophany

Metropolitan Viktor (Kotsaba) of Khmelnytskyi and Starokonstantinovskyi, who governs the Khmelnytskyi diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, commented on the circumstances of the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on May 27, 2022. According to him, the Council was indeed held under pressure, but it was the will of the church environment itself – the episcopate, clergy and believers who demanded a response to Russia’s military aggression.

As a direct participant in the events, Metropolitan Victor testified that the Council was convened in full compliance with Church rules and was held without any external influence. “A powerful impetus for its holding was the numerous appeals of the episcopate, clergy, monastics and laity from all over Ukraine to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry with a request to give at the council level answers to the challenges of our time,” the hierarch noted. He added that at that time, when he was the head of the administrative apparatus of the Kyiv Metropolitanate, he personally handed over to the Primate the folders with these appeals.

The Metropolitan emphasized that the work of the Council took place in an atmosphere of fraternal communication, where each participant could freely express his opinion. Decisions were made almost unanimously after the Council discussion. He also recalled the principled position of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphrius, who always adheres to the principle of non-interference of the authorities in the internal affairs of the Church, which, in his opinion, excluded any external pressure on the course of the Council.

Referring to the Statute on the governance of the UOC adopted at the Council, Vladyka Viktor reminded that the supreme authority in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church belongs to its Council, and its resolutions come into force immediately after adoption and do not require any other approval. “All the decisions of the Council were aimed at preserving the unity, peace and spiritual integrity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and therefore any attempts to level these decisions look like designed to destroy the unity of the episcopate, clergy and believers,” the Metropolitan concluded.

Earlier Metropolitan of Cherkassy and Kanev Theodosius (Snigiryov) said that the Council in Theophany in 2022 was held under pressure from the secret services. The bishop noted that the hierarchs of the UOC were threatened by people “in shoulder straps” before participating in the council, demanding that they make “necessary decisions”.