The former hieromonk of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Innokentiy (Pidtoptanyi), in an interview with Glavkom, explained why he had been “pondering” about the transition to the new church structure of the OCU for so long.

“It can be compared to wheat, which takes time to ripen. Two years have passed since the granting of the Tomos, as I matured,” says the current cleric of the OCU.

He also said that he was on family leave when making the transition, also that he could not go earlier, because “the propaganda that is being held was restrained.”

“I asked the ruling bishop, Metropolitan Onuphry, and the governor of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, for a vacation and received consent. Further, at the place of residence, I already submitted a petition to the ruling metropolitan (Metropolitan Pitirim (Starinsky) for the service. But there was no place for me to serve. Perhaps, I admit the thought that if I were accepted there, I would still hesitate, to join or not to join (to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine), but there was silence on the part of the metropolitan and I was alone for three months, at home, communicating with my mother, I was. She is also a parishioner, she always went and goes to church, reads literature. Then we just realized: no matter how they say, but in 2018 the most important thing happened – the Ukrainians came out, first of all, from the canonical isolation in which they were before, ”says Fr. Innokentiy.