The recent decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which obliged the self-governing churches to get an approval of the texts of services for locally revered saints by Patriarch Kirill, has no direct relation to the UOC. This assumption was done by the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, Andrei Kuraev, who is banned from the ministry, while communicating with representatives of the website Glavcom.

“I would not rush to the conclusion that the recent decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow on this topic at least somehow concerns the Ukrainian Church. In Internet discussions it was repeatedly noted that the status of the UOC is so peculiarly spelled out in the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church that if there is no special mention of the UOC in the formulation of the Moscow synodal decision, then this one does not apply to the UOC.

Chapter 12 of the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church is entitled “Self-governing Churches” and contains a list of them: Latvian, Estonian, Moldavian, Russian Abroad. And that’s all. The Ukrainian Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) is not presented in this list. The 10th chapter of the Charter of the ROC separately speaks only and precisely about the UOC. But in the same chapter it is said that “the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is self-governing”. Hence this ambiguity”, said Kuraev.

In his opinion, it is more important that the Kyiv Metropolis itself believes that if the decision of the Moscow Synod mentions “self-governing churches”, but there is no direct mention of the Ukrainian Church, then this one does not apply to it. For example, in the decisions of the same Moscow Synod of the same December 29, a general ecclesiastical norm is adopted on another issue, and it is said about it “to ask His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv to observe the above rules…”.