Epiphany appeals to Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC-MP to engage in dialogue on unity
Kyiv • UNN
OCU Primate Epifaniy appealed to Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC-MP to start a dialogue on the unity of Orthodox churches in Ukraine. He emphasized the need to abandon preconditions for the start of the dialogue.
Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, appealed to Metropolitan Onufriy of the UOC-MP to engage in a dialogue on unity, UNN reports.
"To Metropolitan Onufriy in Kyiv and all the hierarchs, clergy and laity who are with him. Bishops and fathers, brothers and sisters! On the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, prayerfully relying on Her intercession, guidance and help in every good deed, I wish to renew my appeal on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to You, Vladyka, to the hierarchs, clergy and faithful who recognize You as their Primate: For the sake of the good and establishment of the Orthodox Christian faith in Ukraine, for the sake of the Church of Christ, for the sake of protecting the truth from attempts to distort it, to immediately begin a dialogue," Epifaniy said.
Epifaniy noted that for a long time, for various reasons, both ecclesiastical and mostly external, secular, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been divided for various reasons.
"Canon law and order in general, as well as the Tomos in particular, stipulate that all Orthodox church institutions within Ukraine should be in organizational and jurisdictional unity as one and only Local Orthodox Church. However, it is with great sorrow and pain that we all witness that, primarily because of the position of the Moscow Patriarchate, some Orthodox have not yet heard the call of unity directed to them and have not fulfilled this duty to be united. But among those Ukrainian Orthodox who are not yet in the family of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the number of those who want to achieve this unity is growing," Epifaniy noted.
The Primate of the OCU emphasized that the whole world sees that the Patriarchate of Moscow has been deeply poisoned by the pseudo-religious teachings of the Russian World, the poisonous and deadly fruit of which is Russia's current terrible war against Ukraine.
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The head of the OCU emphasized that they could not agree to such demands.
"Therefore, we lovingly ask you and the hierarchs who are with you to agree to begin our dialogue without preconditions. This is exactly how the dialogue that Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine blessed and supported and which the Patriarchate of Moscow destroyed began, without preconditions. Let all those who truly cherish the memory of Metropolitan Volodymyr take him as an example," Epifaniy said.
