Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department of the Russian Orthodox Church: Despite pressure, UOC bishops remain faithful to their Church

The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, has commented on the situation in which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church finds itself. The hierarch noted that the UOC is facing unprecedented persecution and severe pressure from the Ukrainian government, which does not allow the leadership of the Church to fully respond to the challenges ahead. At the same time, Metropolitan Antony noted that despite the pressure, the hierarchs of the UOC do not drift into schism, but remain faithful to their Church. He told about this on air of the program «Church and the World».

«We should be aware that today the hierarchs and parishioners of the canonical Orthodox Church are under the most severe pressure from the special services of Ukraine and from the Ukrainian authorities in particular. Actually, the persecutions that are taking place are the best confirmation of this. Therefore, when the Church is in conditions of unfreedom and severe pressure, it cannot react to any circumstances or organize its internal life, » Metropolitan Anthony said.

The Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of the Russian Orthodox Church added that the Council in Theophany, which took place in 2022, may well have been provoked by the pressure of the Ukrainian authorities and special services. In this regard, an adequate assessment of its decisions can be given only after the war, when the UOC will be free in its decisions and statements.

«Already now we hear the revelations of some hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that the council in Theophany was held under the most brutal pressure from the state authorities of Ukraine. We know very well how they work: intimidation, blackmail, threats. And His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod did not make any judgments on this matter…. of course, what is happening today in the life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be evaluated after the Church is free. I think that any call from Russia or any letter they receive, for example, from Moscow, is a direct road to prison for them, » the bishop added.

In addition, Metropolitan Antony spoke about the possible granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He said that at this stage the UOC has not addressed the Moscow Patriarchate with such a request. At the same time, the bishop noted the steadfastness of the UOC bishops, who, despite blackmail and entreaties of the authorities, remain faithful to the Church and do not transfer to the OCU for the sake of avoiding persecution.

«There are appropriate canonical mechanisms for granting autocephaly. There have been no such requests from the Ukrainian Church. Although the possibility of avoiding persecution by joining the schism was and still is offered to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by their persecutors. As is known, of all the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, despite the pressure they were under on the eve of the so-called unification council, when two schismatic jurisdictions were used to make what is called today the OCU, only two were traitors and went into schism. The rest of the bishops, despite what the Security Service of Ukraine did to them, they did not go for it and remained faithful to their Church,» the Metropolitan concluded.

We shall remind you that Metropolitan of Boryspil and Brovary Antony (Pakanich), the Manager of Ukrainian Orthodox Church Affairs, analyzed 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.