Even those Orthodox hierarchs who, under pressure, agreed to recognize the Ukrainian schismatics, avoid concelebrating with them. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, said this in an interview with RIA Novosti.
To the question of journalists: “Is it appropriate to compare the process of recognition of the OCU, which was created on the basis of Ukrainian schismatic structures and which Constantinople gave autocephaly, with the recognition of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of America (OCA)? Indeed, in an interview with Patriarch Bartholomew, the OCA is called a “pseudo-autocephalous church”, which is “still not recognized by anyone”?, the hierarch replied:
“It is noteworthy that these words were spoken by the Georgian media. Meanwhile, the Georgian Orthodox Church recognized the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of America as one of the first. The autocephalous status of the Orthodox Church of America is recognized by a significant part of the Local Orthodox Churches. And of course, no one, even in Constantinople, has any doubts about the canonical dignity of the primate and episcopate of the Orthodox Church of America. Patriarch Bartholomew and the heads of other Local Churches meet and serve with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon. And how many Primates, besides Patriarch Bartholomew, still concelebrated with Epiphany Dumenko?”