UOC Legal Department warns of schemes using bishops' signatures

Протоиерей Александр Бахов

The head of the Legal Department stressed on his Facebook page that the Bishops’ Council of the UOC did not authorize any bishops to participate in or represent the canonical Church at the upcoming “unification council”.

According to earlier reports, Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Bar has allegedly received letters of authority from 15 bishops of the UOC for the vote, which will be held at the unification council, Father Alexander noted that, firstly, creating a church on letters of authority is “cool”, and secondly, all bishops should be careful not to be involved in any scheme.

"It's creative! It's probably even cooler than what Filaret did when he created the Kiev Patriarchate! But there were at least living people there, yes, they were lured to the council and deceived, and here they couldn't lure people, they just whipped up some letters of authority!" Bakhov wrote on Facebook.

"Fathers, be attentive, because you may be involved in something without even knowing it!" the priest wrote, adding that the Department for Religious Affairs has samples of the signatures of all bishops of Ukraine.

"The assembly of the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church did not order any bishops to participate in or represent the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at any assemblies!" he wrote.

As the UOJ reported, earlier the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andrei Parubiy expressed confidence that the unification council would be held in late November. At the same time, the representative of the UAOC "Bishop" Afanasy Shkurupiy said that no negotiations on unification are underway, and at the end of November only the Council of the Kiev Patriarchate can take place.

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