print this page

UOC-MP Head: Change of Canonical Status of UOC Can Help “Schismatic Groups” Join

30.06.2008, [11:07] // UOC-MP //

Moscow-Kyiv— During his address at the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on 25 June 2008 in Moscow, Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) stated that a change in the canonical status of the UOC might help “schismatic groups” join.

“It is very probable that developing the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church can persuade schismatic groups to join it,” said the Metropolitan in his address.

However, it would not solve the problem of disunity within the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, according to the UOC head, because not all the faithful and clergy of UOC are prepared to renounce the canonical connection to the Russian Orthodox Church. That being said, Metropolitan Volodymyr believes that autocephaly is not the only solution to the Ukrainian Church problem.

“Autocephaly cannot be used as an instrument to consolidate the Church; it should be the result of a previously reached Church-wide consensus,” said the hierarch.

• http://orthodoxy.org.ua/uk/tserkovni_hroniki/2008/06/26/16970.html