UOC bishop: We’re part of ROC under its Charter? So the Crimea is also Russian?

Archbishop Sylvester (Stoychev). Photo: KDAiS press service

Answering a question from a journalist from the dialogtut publication that, according to the Charter of the ROC, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is considered part of it, Archbishop Sylvester of Bilohorodka, rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary, cited an analogy with the attitude of the Russian Federation towards the occupied territories as an example.

“Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories are considered their own by the Russian Federation, and this is recorded in their documentation. Does it mean that now we, Ukrainians, should take seriously the fact that our territories are considered theirs? It is unlikely that anyone will agree with such a statement,” Vladyka explained.

The rector of KDAiS also reminded that for a very long period, the kings of England considered themselves the legitimate rulers of France and even displayed this in titles, but in reality they never were.

“Just out of imperial ambitions did they want to think that the territories of France belong to them,” added the hierarch of the UOC.

Why am I drawing these analogies? Because we, the UOC, are an independent Church, regardless of what is written and what ideas are displayed in the documents of another Church. These are their documents. They can write whatever they want there. Our Church has fixed its status, which is comparable to the status of autocephalous Churches. And if anyone is interested in what is written in the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church and why, let them ask there. The UOC has no connection with the administrative structures of the ROC. This is clearly seen from the Statute, adopted at the Council of the UOC in Feofaniya,” said Archbishop Sylvester.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Vladyka Sylvester explained whether the UOC is in schism.

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