The topic of divisions in the Orthodox world, as well as the church situation in Ukraine, was touched upon in an interview with the Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop Leonid of Vladikavkaz and Alan, to the newspaper Dimokratiki Tis Rodu.

“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian church crisis is often presented as a jurisdictional conflict between the two Churches. But this interpretation is fundamentally wrong. The Patriarch of Constantinople and his Synod did not just establish their jurisdiction in Ukraine, they did something that generally goes beyond the scope of Orthodox ecclesiology. The universally recognized Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, Onuphry, over a hundred bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he suddenly declared non-canonical, illegally “holding” their titles.

At the same time, he declared the only canonical Church in Ukraine to be a group entirely composed of unrepentant schismatics who had separated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and opposed it. So, with a simple stroke of the pen, the Church in Ukraine and the schismatic gathering in this country “changed places.” Perhaps this is possible in someone’s imagination, but it is impossible in the Orthodox Church,” said the hierarch.