UOC-MP ELECTS LOCUM TENENS FOR KYIVAN METROPOLITAN CHAIR
RISU was informed by the Synodal Information Department of the UOC-MP that a meeting of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was held in Kyiv on February 24. The meeting, in accordance with the Charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was chaired by Metropolitan Ahafanhel of Odesa and Izmail, the oldest by ordination permanent member of the Synod.
As stated in the report, “due to the physical inability of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine to carry out the duties of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the members of the Synod have seen personally when they visited His Beatitude in the hospital, the Synod has decided it is necessary to elect a locum tenens for the Chair of the Kyivan Metropolitan.”
UOC-MP READY FOR DIALOGUE WITH UOC-KP AND UAOC
On February 24 the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, chaired by locum tenens of the Kyivan Metropolitan Chair Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna,discussed the “Appeal of the Holy Synod of the UOC-KP to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate on the Urgency of Overcoming the Division of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” dated February 22, 2014.
UOC-MP SYNOD CONDEMNS CRIMINAL ACTIONS OF YANUKOVYCH’S GOVERNMENT
The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) at a meeting on February 24 adopted an appeal to the government in connection with the recent developments in Ukraine, in which the Synod condemned the “criminal actions of the government that provoked the bloodshed on the streets and squares of the gold-domed Kyiv” and assured of prayers for the dead and care of the wounded.
The Synod of the UOC-MP also stressed the importance of “building a new country on the principles of good and justice, territorial integrity, and consolidation of society” and that “the authorities should be aware of its responsibility before God, its own conscience, past, present and future generations.”