Council of Serbian Church officially rejects OCU

Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Following the meeting of the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was held from 9 to 18 May 2019 in the Zica Monastery and the city of Kraljevo, an official press release was published, which, in particular, assesses the Ukrainian ecclesiastic issue.

During the meeting under the leadership of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, “issues of the life and mission of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the modern world, full of great spiritual challenges and temptations” were discussed.

“The biggest problem of the Orthodox Church today is the church split in Ukraine and the unsuccessful attempt of the Constantinople Patriarchate to tackle the problem ‘haphazardly’, unilaterally, without any dialogue with the canonical Church in Ukraine and with the Russian Orthodox Church, and in general without pan-Orthodox consultations,” the statement says.

The hierarchs emphasize, "In this regard, the Council reaffirms its current position: our Church does not recognize the newly created structure in Ukraine, headed by citizens Denisenko and Dumenko."

The bishops also reaffirmed their support for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

As the UOJ reported, earlier the Serbian Patriarchate sent out to all the Local Churches letters that the Serbian Orthodox Church does not recognize the OCU and considers the actions of Phanar in Ukraine to be non-canonical. The only Church in Ukraine recognized by the Serbian Patriarchate is the UOC, the Serbian Orthodox Church reported.

In addition, an official statement of the Serbian Orthodox Church, published in February of this year, emphasized that the only Church that the Serbian Patriarchate recognizes in Ukraine is the canonical UOC.

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