Chancellor: Istanbul hooting won't shake our flock's love for His Beatitude
Nobody can wipe out the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its millions of parishioners, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) emphasized.
It is impossible to shake the authority of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine and the love for him on the part of the flock of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with a shout from Istanbul. Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovary, Chancellor of the UOC, said this in an interview with Vesti.ua.
Commenting on the recent statements of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople that he does not consider His Beatitude Onuphry as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine and only “temporarily tolerates” the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony stressed that “no one can remove the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and millions of its parishioners from reality.”
“We can be ignored and disregarded, but we cannot be wiped out of reality. Nor can a hoot from Istanbul shake the authority of our Beatitude Metropolitan and the love of our flock for him,” he added.
However, in the opinion of Metropolitan Anthony, the words spoken by Patriarch Bartholomew “may indicate that Phanar is only waiting for the right political timing to destroy our Church <...> because now the process of pressure on the UOC has significantly decreased. So, apparently, the Patriarch of Constantinople has to ‘temporarily tolerate’ the UOC and its Primate until he has got the earliest opportunity to change the situation in his favor."
We will remind, earlier the Primate of the UOC exhorted to be ready, first of all, spiritually for negative ramifications from the visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople to Ukraine, if any.
