Constantinople wants to subordinate UOC KP and UAOC, – media

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

At the end of May, the Patriarchate of Constantinople may issue the Tomos on the creation of the exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine. In other words, Phanar intends to subordinate the UOC KP and the UAOC by making them the metropolitanate under the Constantinople Patriarchate.

According to the "Vesti" sources, the authority of Patriarch Bartholomew over this metropolitanate will be full and comprehensive. For example, Constantinople will be able to block any decisions of the Bishops' Council of its exarchate in Ukraine, and will also approve any personnel and financial decisions.

Representatives of the Kiev Patriarchate have already called this decision "outrageous": "Although the UOC of the Kiev Patriarchate is now not recognized by the world Orthodoxy, but it is independent in its administration. We have our patriarch and the Kiev-based control centre. Constantinople wants to deprive us of freedom and completely subjugate us. Why do we need this option?"

At the same time, in January of this year the so-called "Patriarch" Filaret of the UOC KP spoke out against such possible submission: "No stages. What difference does it have to obey Moscow or obey Constantinople? Ukraine is an independent state," says the Patriarch.

A high-ranking representative of the UOC KP, "Archbishop" Sergey Gorobtsov of Donetsk and Mariupol, confirmed that the position of his organization hasn’t changed: "It is important for us that the patriarch is here, in Kiev, and we do not submit to Moscow or Constantinople."

The Kiev Metropolitanate of the UOC believes that this decision will lead to a catastrophe, because it will split the unity of the world Orthodoxy and entail schisms within the same UOC KP.

Representatives of the Local Churches have repeatedly stated that they do not approve of the initiative to provide the Tomos on autocephaly to the so-called Single Local Church, and that the only canonical Church in Ukraine is the UOC.

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