The Synod of the UOC-MP held its meeting the day before the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, so as not to comment on the scandalous decision on the formation of the Kherson diocese of the UOC-MP on the territory of the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
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The Synod of the MP met on December 26, and the Russian Orthodox Church announced the actual annexation of the diocese on the territory of Ukraine on December 27.
The Synod of the UOC in Kyiv did not make any statements or decisions on this matter, although the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Church in Ukraine could not help but know that the Moscow Patriarchate was preparing to annex the UOC communities in the occupied part of the Kherson region, said Metropolitan of the OCU Evstratiy (Zarya).
He provided evidence that the UOC-MP continues to act in collusion with the Russian Orthodox Church.
On December 28, a statement appeared from the Office of the Kherson Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine). She expresses a strong protest against the synodal decision of the Russian Orthodox Church on the creation of the so-called “Skadov diocese”, adopted on December 27 of this year during a regular meeting in Moscow (Journal No. 120).
The territory of Ukraine is not the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, and no decisions of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the territory of the Kherson region, which is completely part of Ukraine as a sovereign independent state, have no authority. The temporary occupation of the left bank of Kherson by Russian troops does not make it part of Russia. The decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (journal No. 120 of December 27, 2023) once again emphasizes the shameful fact that the Moscow Patriarchate, headed by Kirill (Gundyaev), is an active instrument of aggression, occupation, enslavement and destruction of Ukraine.
We call on the leadership of the church structure in Ukraine headed by Metropolitan Onuphry (Berezovsky) to voice their official position on the creation of a phantom “Skadov diocese” of the Russian Orthodox Church. We especially call on Metropolitan John (Siopka), who heads a religious association in the Kherson region, to make public his position, part of which was annexed by the synodal decision of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 27 of this year, cynically referring to his inaction during the occupation of part of the Kherson region. We ask him to comment on the statement of the clergy subordinate to him: “we have always understood and realized that both canonically and spiritually we are part of that large and strong family in which the earthly and the heavenly are united – the Russian Orthodox Church.”
The silence on this issue from the bishops who serve in Ukraine and are presented as bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate on the pages of the official calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church for 2024 is unacceptable. Such silence is a sign of agreement with the aggressor, evidence of the subordination and submission of those who call themselves the UOC to the Moscow center, the statement says.
Source: Racurs
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