UAPTs AND UPTsKP ARE DISPOSED TO SEEK A "COORDINATED COMMON VISION" AT UNIFICATION COUNCIL
Religiia v Ukraine, 11 December 2018
The primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAPTs), Metropolitan Makary, and a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UPTsKP), Archbishop Evstraty, commented on the 10 December statement by the primate of the UPTsKP, Patriarch Filaret, about procedures for conducting the unification council of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, scheduled for 15 December, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with a reference to Credo.Press and the UPTsKP website.
"How can the council be episcopal if one priest and one layman per bishop are invited? You know, I will not judge anybody. We will be subject to the ecumenical patriarchate temporarily. It was clearly said that each bishop brings with him one priest and one layman," the UAPTs primate noted in an interview with Glavkom.
Responding to a question whether something can interfere with conducting the council, despite the disagreements that are in various churches, Makary said: "I will have no complaints against anybody. On my part, I answer simply: we will arrive at the council on the invitation of the ecumenical patriarch."
Metropolitan
Makary also commented on
statements from the UPTsKP about the necessity of an open ballot
for the
candidacy of the prelate of the church.
"The voting
will be secret.
Although Patriarch Filaret says to it is open, nobody will
conduct an open
ballot. Both in our charter and in the charter of the church of
the Kiev
patriarchate it says that the primate is elected by a local
council by means of
secret ballot," the UAPTs primate emphasized.
At the same time, on 10 December the head of the information department and representative of the Kiev patriarchate, Archbishop Evstraty, officially reported that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is preparing for the unification council in accordance with the conditions of the ecumenical patriarchate and "the existence of suggestions on the part of the Kiev patriarchate for the rules of the council or the procedure of electing the primate does not mean that in the end there will not be a coordinated common vision." (tr. by PDS, posted 11 December 2018)
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