UOC explains why its status is more autocephalous than that of OCU

Primate of the UOC His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: news.church.ua

The scope of rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is much greater than that of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reported.

In addition, the Statute of the UOC does not provide for signs of a canonical relation with the structures being subordinate to the Moscow Patriarch and the Moscow Patriarchate in particular.

The Information and Education Department noted that the very status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is more autocephalous than that of the OCU:

1. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is elected only by the Ukrainian episcopate and does not need additional procedures for his enthronement.
2. Bishops of the UOC, in turn, are elected, consecrated and appointed only by the decision of the Holy Synod of the UOC, without agreement with any center outside Ukraine.
3. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has restored the ancient right of the Metropolitan of Kyiv in relation to chrism-making.
4. The Council of Bishops of the UOC is the last instance of appeal.
5. The UOC independently carries out the pastoral care of its believers who ended up abroad, for which purpose it opens parishes and even appointed a separate bishop.

It was added inn a comparative analysis that the Statute of the UOC does not provide for the interference of other Local Churches in the process of electing its Primate, while the statute of the OCU provides for such interference on the part of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

“The right to interpret the provisions of the Charter of the UOC is assigned to the Holy Synod of the UOC. At the same time, the Patriarch of Constantinople retained the right to interpret the provisions of the OCU Charter regarding Tomos. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church can spiritually take care of the Diaspora and send its clergy to serve abroad. The OCU is deprived of the right to conduct any pastoral activity outside Ukraine. Also, the issue of chrism-boiling is resolved in favor of the UOC, while the OCU, as already mentioned, should take chrism in Constantinople,” summed up in the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

As the UOJ wrote, Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany criticized the policy of the Ukrainian authorities towards the canonical Church.

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