Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Aleksey Osipov expressed gratitude to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine for the fact that “nothing beyond the boundaries of normal relations happened” between the Russian Orthodox Church and the UOC at the Council on May 27. He spoke about this on his YouTube channel.

“Judging by the reports given in the official press, it can be assumed that nothing significant has happened. The Council of the UOC once again reminded of the independence that was given to the Ukrainian Church of the Russian Orthodox Church, ”says Osipov.

He explained that in the church vocabulary there is no concept of “independence”.

“There are no such terms in the canonical lexicon, there is autocephaly or autonomy, but in this case these terms are not used. But the main thing is that there was no separation or rupture. <…> Gratitude to Metropolitan Onufry and the episcopate of the Ukrainian Church that nothing beyond the boundaries of normal relations has happened,” the theologian said.