COMMENTARY BY UPTs CHANCELLOR, METROPOLITAN OF BORISPOL AND BROVARY ANTONY ON DECISION OF CONSTANTINOPLE SYNOD
Official website of UPTsMP, 12 October 2018
What happened in the Synod in Istanbul yesterday shocked the entire Orthodox world. It seems that the patriarchate of Constantinople deliberately has taken the path of schism of world Orthodoxy. Patriarch Bartholomew ignored the calls of local churches to convene a conference of primates for the purpose of working out a joint and conciliar decision on the Ukrainian church matter and in a unilateral manner made very serious but mistaken decisions. I hope that world Orthodoxy will give this action an objective assessment.
The final document of the Constantinople Synod engenders more questions than it gives answers. In particular, the status of the UPTsKP and UAPTs remains unclear. By what procedure was the review of the appeal of Filaret Denisenko conducted? Many other questions also arise.
In reality, nothing has changed for our church. We were, are, and remain the only canonical church in Ukraine. We do not recognize the Stavropegion, whose creation was proclaimed on the Phanar. Having received the schismatics into fellowship, Patriarch Bartholomew has not made them canonical, and he himself has taken the path of schism. The schismatics remain schismatics. They have not received any kind of autocephaly and a tomos. And it seems that they have lost even that independence, however uncanonical, that they had and on which they have always placed an accent.
We want to call to the attention of our clergy and laity that the schismatics have remained, as they were, without grace. And accordingly, it is forbidden to concelebrate and pray with them.
The time has come when all of us must intensify prayers, recalling that God's truth is invincible. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 October 2018)
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