The speaker of the OCU “Archbishop” Yevstratiy Zorya said that his structure has been “conducting a dialogue on foreign parishes organized by the UOC-KP” for two years, since “parishes are not furniture, they are people. Moreover, they cannot be forced to be there or there.” This was discussed in his interview with the YouTube channel DetectorUA.

“Parishes abroad belong to their own religious communities,” Zorya said, answering the question of what jurisdiction the communities abroad belong to and that, according to the Tomos, the OCU loses these parishes.

Zorya also said that the OCU does not extend its jurisdiction beyond the boundaries defined by the Tomos, however, according to him, “all parishes that are transferred by the Tomos to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are completely free to make their own choice.”

“How to find a form that will not violate the Tomos and which will have the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch, but will allow these parishes to feel in connection with Kyiv – this is a matter of dialogue. This dialogue is undeniably difficult. We have been doing this for two years already,” said the  archbishop”.

As reported, as a result of the “dialogue” Zorya was expelled from the United States by the Archbishop of the Phanar Elpidophoros.