KDAiS shows inconsistency of State Ethnic Policy expertise on UOC

Head of State Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience V. Yelensky. Photo: risu.ua

The Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary released a video, in which they analyzed the religious expertise of the UOC Statute, conducted and published by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience on January 27, 2023. This was reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

“In the Conclusion, there is no definition of the basic concepts that the expert group of religious scholars used. These are such concepts as ‘autocephaly’, ‘autonomy’, ‘letter’, ‘tomos’, ‘diptych’ and especially ‘ecclesiastical-canonical relation’. In the absence of a clear definition of these concepts, the expert group operated on them rather arbitrarily, suggesting their own interpretation, on which the objectivity and professionalism of the Conclusion ultimately depended,” the video says.

The KDAiS recalled that autocephaly cannot be proclaimed independently but must be granted.

“The UOC at the Council on May 27, 2022, decided on complete independence and self-governance. In a letter to the Chairman of the DESS dated June 1, 2022, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry outlined the status of the UOC in terms of ‘administrative independence’ and ‘complete canonical independence’. In addition, it clearly stated the delimitation of the UOC from the Moscow Patriarchate,” the Kyiv Theological Academy said.

“Therefore, it can be asserted with confidence that the ‘conclusion’ of the religious expertise of January 27, 2023 regarding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is groundless, unfounded and contains all the signs of manipulation. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was, is and will be the Church of the Ukrainian people. In the future, as well as more than 1000 years ago, She will carry out her salvific mission with peace and love, fulfilling the eternal gospel instructions of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the KDAiS emphasized.

As reported by the UOJ, the former head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Olena Bohdan, said that the conclusions of the DESS expert opinion on the discovery of ecclesiastical-canonical relations between the UOC and the ROC are unsubstantiated and full of assumptions.

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