UGCC: The future patriarch must be elected by both Orthodox and Catholics

Head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk and President of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the UCU Ivan Datsko at a conference in Kiev. Photo: a screenshot of the video from the Zhyve.tv Facebook page

The Orthodox and Catholics in Ukraine should jointly elect a single patriarch, said the President of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the Ukrainian Catholic University, a priest of the UGCC, Ivan Datsko, during a joint conference of representatives of the UGCC, Phanar and the OCU in Kyiv, a recording of which was posted on the Zhyve.tv Facebook page. 

He believes that in order to elect a common patriarch, the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholics must take communion together. “I am convinced that the future Ukrainian patriarch needs to be elected by both Orthodox and Catholics. One, we do not need 5-10 patriarchates in Kyiv, one and all. But we must make joint efforts to take the Eucharist of love together, and then elect,” said the priest of the UGCC.

At the same time, he spoke out that the new religious organization should be called "Orthodox" or "autocephalous", since the representatives of Orthodoxy in Ukraine are in the majority. “I’m not against it – let it be Orthodox, it is in the majority, even autocephalous, but one patriarch,” Datsko said.

As reported, a conference of the UGCC, Phanar and the OCU on the search for unity was held in Kyiv.

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