His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry: UOC has de facto autocephaly

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: news.church.ua

The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine at the Council of Primates in Amman said that the UOC has de facto autocephaly, reports the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

His Beatitude Onuphry recalled that "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate, was formed in 1990 by the Letter of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus on granting self-governance."

He noted that “over time, the internal and external circumstances experienced by the Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian people have stimulated the processes of improving the existing independence and self-government of church life and ministry”.

According to the Primate of the UOC, "today we have de facto real autocephaly". He explained that in the UOC "the Holy Synod functions, there is the Council of Bishops, there is an independent church court".

Metropolitan Onuphry emphasized that the UOC independently elects and ordains bishops, opens new dioceses, and also has its own religious educational institutions, various synodal institutions for interaction with the outside world and social ministry.

As the UOJ wrote earlier, in the opinion of the UOC Chancellor, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, the OCU is completely dependent on the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

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