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Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not need an autocephaly, which the Ukrainian authorities are striving to obtain so hard. Archbishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchy made this claim on July 28, at the Day of Rus’ Christianization.
“Today our church faces a lot of challenges. The informational environment of our country has been full of arguments about a possibility of getting a permission for an autocephalous church. We confirm that the current canonic status of our church is absolutely enough for fruitful carrying out of its duries among its people,” IA Interfax cites the claim made by archbishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Besides, they are persuaded that the changes in status would entail restrictions of rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian Church which owns rights of the wide autonomy at the moment. Moreover, this would lead to a wider split in the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition as well as within the society, according to the church representatives.
They warned against turning the church into a tool of state control or of ideology.
As the Russkiy Mir Foundation has reported earlier, official Kiev aims at setting up an autocephalous church at Ukraine. Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed Patriarch of Constantinople with a request to grant a right for opening a local Orthodox Church at Ukraine.
Russkiy Mir
