Primate: Creation of OCU within the UOC territory is a canonical crime
Metropolitan Onuphry believes that the actions of the Patriarch of Constantinople did not heal but only worsened the religious situation in Ukraine.
On February 28, 2020, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry told in a live interview with Montenegrin media on Svetigora Radio that by recognizing the autocephaly of the OCU, Patriarch Bartholomew committed a canonical crime.
“The creation, legalization of a new structure called ‘OCU’ in our territory is not just a mistake, it is a church-canonical crime. If the country has a canonical Orthodox Church, then one cannot create another structure of the same Church in parallel. It does not bring good fruit, it causes separation, hostility between people and, as a result, spiritual decline.”
The anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which "legitimized lawlessness" of those who had backslid into schism by repealing their punishments, triggered the church crisis in Ukraine, said the Primate.
The decision of Patriarch Bartholomew not only did not heal the split but also caused a “split in the split”: Filaret Denisenko moved away from the OCU and again, for the second time in history, created a parallel hierarchy. In addition, two new illegal religious groups were formed in Ukraine: the Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Stavropegion.
“This phenomenon once again confirms the truth that lawlessness multiplies lawlessness and that evil is defeated only by good,” said His Beatitude.
In his opinion, now, in order to heal the situation in Ukraine, it is first necessary to return “to the point where the mistake was made”: correct the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and determine its role and place in World Orthodoxy.
“The position of our Church is that at first it is necessary to restore unity and then, if it is appropriate, if it is useful for the spiritual development of the Church, to raise the question about its autocephaly, but not vice versa. The opposite way has already proven to be inefficient. Therefore, autocephaly should be the fruit of the unity of the Church rather than the result of its separation,” said the Metropolitan.
In both Ukraine and Montenegro, politicians interfere in the affairs of the Church, they want to control it and use it in their interests. His Beatitude noted that he was very impressed by the Cross Procession in which he participated in Montenegro.
According to him, those people that approach cross walkers as their enemies try to measure love for God through the political and social prism; however, piety and love for God cannot be measured so.
“We remember the earthly life of Christ the Savior, when some power-hungry people viewed Him as a competitor who was allegedly preparing to become a king of Israel. But the Savior did not come to earth in order to become an earthly king, for He is a heavenly King, He came to earth to make us kings over ourselves and inheritors of eternal life. So the whole story is saturated with the fact that there are people among us who consider themselves wise, worthy but try to measure water with a tape measure and to measure air with a bucket, i.e. they confuse concepts and forget that their standards are earthly standards which cannot measure the spiritual, heavenly, divine dimension. But, God willing, they will realize it. May the Lord make such people sensible, because it is their problem, not ours, and they suffer from it, while we only become stronger,” the First Hierarch emphasized.
He noted that a person becomes beautiful, majestic and noble when he lives with God, when he loves God and sacrifices something of his own for the sake of God. And it was precisely this nobility and majesty His Beatitude could feel in the people who were walking the cross procession in Podgorica.
The Primate wished Ukrainians and Montenegrins to courageously go through the days of the Great Lent and couple the fast and prayer with good deeds, “because fasting and praying during the Great Lent is the Way of the Cross that leads us from Pretoria to Calvary, where we can see the Glory of the Risen Christ” .
As reported by the UOJ, during the Lent, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onuphry blessed the Orthodox to offer a special prayer rule for peace in Ukraine.
