Met. Luke: Opening of UOC metochion in Moscow could help public diplomacy

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia and Melitopol. Photo: religionpravda.com.ua

The creation of the metochion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Moscow would facilitate people’s diplomacy, pilgrimage, liturgical communion between clergy and other important proceedings. Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporizhia and Melitopol said this in a comment to the Analytical Center of St. Basil the Great regarding whether there are issues in the current interaction between the UOC and the ROC that need improvement.

According to the hierarch, today the relations between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches have remained the same: "We continue to live as we have always lived – we offer our prayers to God and fight against sins."

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is independent in its decisions and actions, no pressure being exerted on it by the Russian Orthodox Church,” said Metropolitan Luke. “At the same time, we are all a single canonical space of the Orthodox Church, supra-territorial, united by faith in Christ. Our interaction is based on the most important and unshakable foundation – the Eucharistic, prayerful communion. There are no questions about any separation or destruction. There is only one thing – strengthening the faith. We are one in Christ and, as Christ Himself says, ‘That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me’ (John 17:21).”

At the same time, he agreed with the opinion of those who believe that in Moscow, where there are metochions of the Belarusian and Moldavian Orthodox Churches, it would be worth opening the one of the UOC.

“I believe that the creation of the metochion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Moscow would facilitate the processes of public diplomacy, pilgrimage, academic exchange and liturgical communion between clergy, etc.,” the hierarch said.

As reported by the UOJ, earlier the Ukrainian media launched a fake that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus had allegedly proposed to Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhia and Melitopol to become Primate of the UOC for a bribe of $ 2 million.

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