The Department for External Church Relations of the UOC denied reports of resources close to the Pharar that the Georgian Church allegedly refused the invitation of Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv to send a delegation to Ukraine`s capital to celebrate the 1033th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. Such an invitation was simply not sent, said the speaker of the UOC, Archpriest Mykolay Danylevych.

“I would like to officially declare that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry did not send this year an invitation to Patriarch Elijah of Georgia with a request to send a delegation to celebrate the 1033th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyiv Rus. Accordingly, there was no refusal. Therefore, what this publication writes is an outright lie.

The UOC has very good relations with the GOC. Patriarch Elijah congratulated His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry on the Day of the Angel on 25.06. And at the celebrations on 27-28.07 we had a group of pilgrims from Georgia. Knowing the internal situation in the Georgian Church, I see no prerequisites for the recognition of our schismatics by this Church.

Apparently, the potential for recognition by the OCU has already been exhausted. It is exhausted by the Churches of the Greek world, and that is not all (Jerusalem, Albania, where the Primate is Greek, did not recognize, and most of the Cypriot bishops did not recognize schismatics either),” writes Archpriest Mykolay.