For the OCU to recognize its canonicity, the Tomos of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is enough, says Petr Kraluk, professor at the Ostroh Academy National University, and nevertheless, “we need to work” on the recognition of the OCU by the Churches. In particular, according to him, this concerns the Romanian Orthodox Church. He writes about this in his column for Radio Liberty.

“For the OCU to recognize its canonicity, the tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is enough. There is no need for any other special recognition from other churches, at least the procedure for such recognition when granting autocephaly is not spelled out in the Orthodox canons, ”the author of the article says.

However, he argues “there is no need to be complex about this”: “In order for the OCU to establish its position in the Orthodox world, it should be recognized by other Orthodox Churches. And we should work on this. ”

And although, according to him, the Romanian Orthodox Church “suspended” the process of recognizing the OCU, and “in February 2020, his synod expressed a consensus between the Ecumenical and Moscow Patriarchate,” he thinks that “there is hope that the Romanian Orthodox Church will recognize the OCU.”

And this is despite the fact that recently, commenting on the statement of the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko, Father Mikhail Titsa, the personal assistant of Patriarch Daniel on international and interchurch issues, said: “I don’t know on what facts“ Metropolitan of the OCU ”Epiphanius bases his statement regarding future relations OCU with the Romanian Orthodox Church. As far as I know, the position of our Church at the moment is expressed in its previously announced decision, ”said Father Mikhail.

In a statement dated October 25, 2018, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Church called on the Moscow and Constantinople Patriarchates to find a solution to the “Ukrainian question,” while preserving the unity of faith and administrative and pastoral freedom.