It turns out that September 24 in the life of Orthodoxy was a day full of surprises. In the network there were reports about the fact of co-participation of representatives of the Romanian Patriarchate and the OCU. This happened on September 24 during an event organized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Hungary. From the side of the Romanian Patriarchate, Bishop Siluan of the Romanian Church in Hungary was present (and, in fact, received communion), while from the OCU the “common cup” was shared by the well-known Michael Zinkevich.

The photo shows that it was not a service, but a communion. That is, there was no joint celebration of the Liturgy. At a certain moment they simply drank from the same cup, although it does not cancel anything. In fact, in this way the fact of an attempt to establish Eucharistic communion between the RumOC and the OCU is recorded, and if there is no reaction to this fact on the part of the Church in Bucharest, it will testify to many things.

First, if Bishop Siluan’s actions were conscious and are not an involuntary mistake, then it will be safe to say that the attitude towards the OCU in the RumOC is changing. Theoretically, he could not know who Zinkevich is and what organization he represents, there is little doubt who Bartholomew could bring with him. But if this is not a mistake, but a conscious action, then what happened is a test case to check the reaction.

Secondly, an important point is the fact that there has been some tension between the RumOC and the ROC, which may be the reason for what happened. It is no secret that Bucharest still has ambitions and views regarding Moldova, which is currently the canonical territory of the ROC. Besides, internal political processes and cooling of relations between Moscow and Tiraspol are pushing Moldova not just into a political union with Romania, but even towards full unification. Naturally, such processes cannot remain outside the attention of the Church. Recent church scandals in Moldova are proof of this.

Thirdly, in view of the possible ban of the UOC, the Romanian Patriarchate does not miss the opportunity to expand its canonical territory at the expense of Bukovina. By the way, Bukovyna has been ready for such a development for a long time. Divine services in the local churches of the UOC are conducted in the Romanian language and with the corresponding cultural inclusions, which are significantly dissonant with the general ecclesiastical landscape of Ukraine.

One way or another, everything is coming to the point that if the ROC does not voluntarily renounce Moldova and Bukovina, then the RumOC is quite likely to play out the scenario with the recognition of the OCU. It is the recognition/non-recognition of the OCU that today is one of the levers of pressure on the ROC of those Local Churches that have not yet made up their minds, and in fact – have not squeezed out the maximum for their own interests. In any case, something tells us that all these “fall aggravations” are not an accidental “flash in the sun”, but the result of active diplomacy of the Phanar and, in the case of the RumOC, the presence of ambitions that have become too great to hide.