Session Of The Holy Synod Of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Members of the Holy Synod of the UOC did not bless the bishops, clergy, monastic orders and laity to participate in the “unification Council”.
7 December 2018, the Primate of the UOC his Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Onufry reported to all the bishops of the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding the “unification Council.”
According to PWC, the members of the Synod condemned the event and decided to consider it an illegal meeting, because it plan to take part representatives of the schismatic “churches”.
“In this regard and on the basis of the Decision of the Council of bishops of the UOC of November 13, 2018 the bishops, clergy, monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to participate in the so-called unification Council is not blessed, “–said his Beatitude Onufry.
Cases of pressure on Church members of the Synod called “direct coercion to violate the bishops’ oath, which the bishops were obliged to observe even under threat of death.”
“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not authorize anyone from among the episcopate, clergy, monastics, and laity to represent the UOC in the so-called unification Council”, – has officially declared the Synod participants.
Earlier, the SPM reported that his Beatitude Onufry, and other hierarchs of the UOC received the invitation to the “unification Council”, return them to the Patriarch of Constantinople without an answer.