Polish Church sends a complaint to Phanar head about actions of OCU on its canonical territory

The Primate of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church has sent a complaint to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople related to the invasion of the OCU into the canonical territory of the PAOC. The protest is related to the creation of so-called chaplaincy missions in Poland by the OCU, under the guise of which Ukrainian schismatics open full-fledged parishes. This became known from the journals of the meeting of the Synod of the OCU, which took place on November 7, 2025.

According to the OCU, the meeting heard a report from the Chief Secretary of the Synod of the OCU Simeon Shostatsky on a letter from the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archimandrite Vosporius, with information about a complaint against the activities of the OCU, which His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland sent to Patriarch Bartholomew.

The OCU itself explains that the creation of «chaplaincy missions» in Poland was a forced step due to the fact that the Polish Church refuses to recognize Ukrainian schismatics as the Local Church.

«The text of the Synodal letter addressed to His Beatitude Sawa, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland, and the Bishops’ Council of the OCU was approved, explaining the actions of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which are taking place in a state of emergency, which arose due to the anti-canonical and even anti-Christian attitude of the OCU hierarchy towards the clergy and faithful of the OCU who found themselves in Poland, fleeing from Russian armed aggression. The Ecumenical Patriarchate will also be informed of this letter,» the OCU statement reads.

As we reported earlier, the OCU, which claims to be equal among the Local Orthodox Churches, continues to violate its own Tomos and invade the canonical territory of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. This time, despite the Tomos’ ban on the OCU’s activities abroad, on February 9, 2025, the head of the Rivne Diocese of the OCU, Hilarion Protsyk, visited Warsaw, where he held religious events that were clearly not coordinated with the OCU. It is also worth noting that the event was attended by a representative of the local diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.