Professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary Sergei Bortnyk, in an interview with the Viche YouTube channel, noted that, unfortunately, today in Ukraine we see “a struggle between structures — the former Kyiv Patriarchate and the current UOC. And, accordingly, each side wants the destruction of the other. And that’s a big problem.”
According to him, one can notice that the approach of the Patriarchate of Constantinople regarding the Ukrainian issue “is reconciling. But they acted too quickly and did not take into account the psychological factor in particular.”
“Our Church and our leadership through the experience of being in the Church are convinced that we exist in the Church, that we are a grace-filled structure, that Christ acts in us at the Eucharist and in other Sacraments. Therefore, it is simply impossible to ban us. There will be a lot of resistance,” said the professor.
Sergei Bortnik considers it a mistake for the radical representatives of the other side, in particular the party of Alexander Sagan, that they want to “destroy the structure of the UOC, not understanding what our Church, our hierarchs, our believers are holding on to.”
“And they are far from holding on to Moscow, but to this principle, the feeling that we are the Church, that we are the truth,” the professor emphasized.
