The representative of the OCU, Evstratiy Zorya, said that since only the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and the Church of Cyprus were approved as autocephalous churches during the Ecumenical Councils, to deny the right of the head of the Church of Constantinople to grant this status means to question the order of all Orthodoxy. Zorya shared his views with Ukrinform.

Also, according to him, “according to the Tomos, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has not only responsibilities, but also rights. And one of the inalienable rights is to be present and participate in all Pan-Orthodox events.”

“And therefore, no meeting, no meeting can be recognized as Pan-Orthodox, if the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is not invited to it and does not have the opportunity to take part in it, as the fifteenth Orthodox Church in the Diptych. Not to mention the fact that any Pan-Orthodox meeting that is not convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch is illegal and is a violation of the canonical order. And therefore, if Moscow initiates some kind of meeting, and we have seen one such meeting already, which we tried to hold and which did not give any useful results, this is just an attempt to further ignore reality and work to divide Orthodoxy,” Zorya convinces.