© Patriarchia.ru
The priests from the majority of the dioceses of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), as well as parishioners of the UOC churches want to stay within the Moscow Patriarchate, Russia-24 TV channel cites the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion. According to the secret voting conducted by Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail in his region, almost 100% of the clergy supported the current Kiev Metropolitan Onufriy.
Meanwhile, Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) support is severely punished abroad. In November, Constantinople forbade Archpriest George Blatinsky and Priest Oleg Turcan to serve messes as a punishment after they and their parishes joined the Russian Church Abroad. The priests served in the Church of the Christ Nativity and St. Nicholas in Florence in protest against the decisions of the Constantinople Patriarch Varfolomey to provide autocephaly to Ukraine. According to Father George, the priests do not recognize canonical force of the Constantinople decision.
The Russkiy Mir previously quoted the words of Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kyrill, who named in the actions of Constantinople an attack against the Russian Orthodox Church aimed at destroying the most powerful Orthodox force in the world. ROC unites 150 million people around the world. Judging by the reaction to the Constantinople decision in Russia and abroad, many clergymen and parishioners oppose the plans to destruct ROC.
Russkiy Mir
