Metropolitan Victor: The UOC Council was indeed held under pressure
The Khmelnytskyi hierarch refuted claims of external pressure on the Council, emphasizing that all decisions were made freely.
Metropolitan Victor of Khmelnytskyi issued a statement explaining how the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church actually took place on May 27, 2022. According to him, his words were a response to “publications concerning the canonical status and freedom of the Council,” which had recently appeared in the media space.
He noted that the word “pressure” can indeed be applied to the context of the Council’s convocation initiative – but it was not external pressure, rather internal. “This pressure, or more precisely, the expression of will, came from within the Church – from the episcopate, clergy, and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the hierarch stated.
He recalled that at the time of the Council, he was a vicar bishop and head of the administrative office of the Kyiv Metropolia. According to him, a powerful impetus for convening the Council were the numerous appeals from Church representatives across Ukraine to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, asking for conciliar answers to the challenges of the time amid the Russian military aggression.
“Almost every day I had to bring to the Primate’s desk full folders of such appeals. With the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, all these documents were archived in the chancery of the Kyiv Metropolia,” testified the hierarch.
At the beginning of the Council, the Primate referred to these many appeals in his opening address and blessed the Chancellor of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, to read some of them aloud before the participants.
Metropolitan Victor stressed that the work of the Council was conducted in an atmosphere of fraternal communication. Every participant had the opportunity to express his thoughts freely, make proposals, and join the discussion. Everyone who wished was given the floor. The resolutions were adopted almost unanimously after collective deliberation, in a spirit of love and mutual respect, without any coercion or pressure.
“It is well known, both inside and outside the Church, that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry has always strictly adhered to the principle of non-interference of state authority in the internal life of the Church. Therefore, any external intervention would have made the convocation and holding of the Council impossible,” the hierarch stated.
He reminded that according to the Statute of the UOC adopted at that same Council, the highest authority in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church belongs to the Council, and its decisions take effect upon adoption, requiring no further approval.
All resolutions of the Council, Metropolitan Victor emphasized, were aimed at preserving the unity, peace, and spiritual integrity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He warned that any attempts to undermine these decisions “appear to be intended to destroy the unity of the episcopate, clergy, and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who are already enduring extremely difficult times in their ecclesial life.”
It should be recalled that Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy stated in a podcast in Vinnytsia that, in his opinion, the Council in Feofania was not held freely.
