Hierarch of the UOC: We have passed the "point of no return" in relations with the Moscow Patriarchate

The hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Silvester (Stoychev) of Bilhorodsk, has said that relations between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church will no longer be the same. Even if the war ends, as the bishop claims, the Ukrainian Church will not return to its former relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and will continue on the path to complete independence. He wrote in a publication for the Public Orthodoxy website .

«First of all, I am convinced that in relations with the Moscow Patriarchate we have passed the ‘point of no return’. Even if by some miracle the war ends just tomorrow, this will in no way mean the UOC’s rejection of all decisions made during the period of Russian aggression. Our Church is firmly on the path of full canonical independence, and this will not change,» — said Archbishop Silvester.

At the same time, the bishop is convinced that the policy of the Moscow Patriarchate has led to such a development of the situation. He recalled that the ROC not only supported Russia’s war against Ukraine, but also «annexed» part of the dioceses of the UOC, which causes a negative reaction of the Ukrainian episcopate.

«Here we cannot fail to mention another painful problem. I mean the life of those dioceses of the UOC that found themselves in the temporarily occupied territories. Now in the territories outside of Ukrainian control are the diocesan centers of the Berdyansk, Gorlovka, Dzhankoy, Donetsk, Lugansk, Novokakhovsk, Rovenkiv, Severodonetsk, Simferopol and Feodosia dioceses. The Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC actually lost the opportunity to influence in any way the church life in these regions. Therefore, the Council in Theophany determined that during the period of martial law, the diocesan bishops of these dioceses have the right to independently make decisions on issues within the competence of the Holy Synod of the UOC. After the end of hostilities, all these bishops will have to restore their communication with the Kyiv Metropolis and inform it of all decisions made during the wartime (clause 7 of the Resolution of the Council). However, as far as one can judge from open sources, after the Council in Theophany, practically all of these dioceses came under the direct subordination of the Moscow Patriarch. Moreover, the Holy Synod in Moscow, without consulting the UOC, began to remove bishops from these cathedrals and appoint other ruling bishops there. The UOC does not recognize all such decisions of the Moscow Synod. In the official publications of the UOC (for example, in church calendars, as well as on the official website of the UOC) the ruling bishops of the occupied dioceses, who were appointed there by our Holy Synod, are indicated. This de facto annexation of the UOC dioceses only strengthens the negative attitude of the Ukrainian episcopate and the church community to the Moscow church leadership, » he added.

We shall remind you that earlier the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, made a reflection on the sin of schism, which, according to him, is a cunning action of the enemy of the human race aimed at distorting the truth, destroying faith and destroying church unity