UOC spokesman: We hold for principles and unity of Church, not for Russia

Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich

You should not make a fetish out of autocephaly, it is necessary only if it helps the unity of the Church, said the deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich on the "1Kozak" TV channel.

“The question is neither in Russia nor in Moscow. The question is in the unity of the Church. We want to preserve the unity of the Church even when we may have an autocephalous state,” he said.

According to him, the UOC does not want to be an "anti-Russian" Church: “We hold not for Russia, not for Moscow, not for Patriarch Kirill but for the principles of the Church, for the Church to be separate from the state, and for the state not to interfere in the affairs of the Church, and we do not want to become dependent on other Churches, in particular on the Patriarchate of Constantinople, what happened in the case of the OCU.”

He stressed: “You shouldn’t make a fetish out of autocephaly, as they do now – “tomos-worship”.

“This is the form of the existence of the Church. If it helps unity – let it be, if not – no need to divide people,” said Fr. Nikolai. 

As the UOJ reported, autocephaly should be the fruit of the unity of the Church. Nowhere in the official documents and speeches of the spokespersons for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church there are any statements that the autocephaly of the Church is impossible in principle, explained the spokesman of the UOC Protopriest Nikolai Danilevich.

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