Religionist and well-known lobbyist of the OCU, Tetyana Derkach, has said that the decision of the Synod of the Romanian Church to create a separate canonical structure in Ukraine under the name “Romanian Orthodox Church of Ukraine” is a very bad signal for Epifaniy’s structure. About this she wrote in a material for the site “Religion in Ukraine”.

“Most likely, in this way the Romanian Church responded that the recognition of the OCU in exchange for the creation of a national vicariate within the new Ukrainian autocephalous Church has long been not in the priority of Bucharest. And the OCU has no other incentives in its arsenal”, – Derkach noted.

She added that “unfortunately, the constant inter-church conflicts between the OCU and the UOC only fueled the Romanians’ intentions to jump off this merry-go-round without brakes. The game of recognizing the annexation of Romanian-speaking parishes of the UOC (i.e., accepting the existence of another local church on its own canonical territory) in exchange for recognition of the OCU is too complicated and dangerous.”

According to the religious scholar, this is “an unpleasant surprise” for Patriarch Bartholomew, who “has given the leadership of the OCU the reins of power on its canonical territory and would not want to interfere in the internal affairs of another local church as much as possible. However, even he is unlikely to be able to influence his fellow believers”.

We shall remind you that earlier we wrote that the head of the Information Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Kliment of Nizhyn and Priluk, said that the decision of the Romanian Church to establish the “Romanian Church of Ukraine” was caused by concerns about the safety of Romanian-speaking parishes in Ukraine because of the actions of the authorities and the OCU.