Epifaniy urges UOC Primate to dialogue on unity "without preconditions"

Epifaniy Dumenko and Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul on August 13, 2024. Photo: OCU

On August 15, the OCU published an appeal by Epifaniy Dumenko to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, calling for dialogue on unification.

Dumenko wrote that he wished to "renew the call on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to you, Vladyka, to the hierarchs, clergy and faithful who recognise you as their Primate: for the sake of the good and establishment of the Orthodox Christian faith in Ukraine, for the sake of the Church of Christ, for the protection of the truth from attempts to distort it – to immediately begin a dialogue."

According to him, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has experienced divisions for a long time, mainly due to "external and worldly" reasons. It was only Patriarch Bartholomew who managed to change this situation in 2018.

Epifaniy highlighted the virtues of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, created by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and blamed the Patriarch of Moscow for the fact that "some Orthodox Christians have not yet heard the call for unity directed at them and have not fulfilled this duty – to be united."

He claimed that "a tree is known by its fruits", and the only evil from which Orthodox Christians should stay away is the "fruits of the 'Russian world'".

"For anyone who truly wishes to preserve the purity of Orthodoxy and cares for the good of the Church, it should be clear that this evil must be avoided and no association with this darkness should be maintained," stated the head of the structure that has been forcibly seizing UOC temples for several years.

He further called on the leadership of the UOC to begin a dialogue on unity without any preconditions.

"...We repeatedly appeal to you, Vladyka, and to all our Orthodox brothers and sisters, but primarily to the bishops and priests, because they bear greater responsibility, as the Scripture testifies – with a call to begin a dialogue on unity without any preconditions," he said.

Epifaniy recalled several conditions previously adopted at the UOC Council in Feofania, without mentioning the demand to stop the violent seizures of churches, beatings of the clergy and believers, and insisted several times that the dialogue should begin "without preconditions".

"Therefore, never losing hope in overcoming church divisions, relying on God, on the protection of the Mother of God, and all the saints, despite the fact that all our numerous previous appeals to you and those with you for dialogue have remained unanswered – I once again appeal to you, Vladyka, and to all those who are with you now, and ask that you do not leave this appeal, this extended hand, without a constructive response," concluded the head of the OCU.

As reported by the UOJ, in 2023, Epifaniy Dumenko stated that there was no sense in uniting with the UOC because "there is already a truly Ukrainian and autocephalous Orthodox Church, a canonical Church recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other Churches."

On August 13, during a meeting of the official Ukrainian delegation with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the head of the OCU assured the head of the Phanar that he consistently urges representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to unite.

Earlier, it became known that the Office of the President was dissatisfied with the position of Dumenko and Zoria regarding the UOC.

It should also be recalled that earlier, police officers who helped OCU activists seize the UOC's Transfiguration Cathedral in Bila Tserkva, as well as the activists themselves, used tear gas against parishioners. During the seizure of the UOC's Ivano-Frankivsk Cathedral on March 28, 2023, the secretary of the diocese, Archpriest Vasyl Romaniuk, was hospitalized unconscious after being sprayed with tear gas in the face.

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