Belarusian Orthodox Church Says 'New Church' In Ukraine Schismatic
Fakhir Rizvi Published December 16, 2018 | 12:09 AM
The Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) considers the "new church" in Ukraine to be schismatic, and believes that any contacts with its representatives are possible only at the civilian level, Archpriest Sergei Lepin, the chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the BOC, told Sputnik on Saturday.
"For us, from a formal point of view, this church is schismatic. What kind of contacts can we talk about?" Lepin said, asked about the possibility of the BOC's contacts with the church established in Ukraine.
Contacts with the representatives of the new church are possible only in a civilian perspective, he said.
"God give them to be good and neighborly ones," the archpriest added.
He also expressed hope that the Ukrainian authorities would fulfill their promise not to oppress representatives of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).
Earlier in the day, a "unification council" was held in Kiev, at which the "metropolitan" of the non-canonical church structure, Epiphany Dumenko, was elected head of the "new church." According to Ukrainian media, only two bishops of the canonical UOC-MP participated in the council. The UOC-MP refused to participate in this event. The authorities of Ukraine now expect to get from Constantinople tomos of autocephaly in early January.
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) said the canonical meaning of the "council" in Kiev was insignificant, and the possibility of recognizing Epiphany in the Orthodox world was unlikely.
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