Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 27 -- Seventy of
the 125 members of the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate say that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should separate from the
Moscow Patriarchate and form on the territory of that country a single
autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The survey, which was conducted on
an anonymous basis by Metropolitan Sofroniy of Cherkassk and Kanyev, is the
latest indication the Moscow Patriarchate’s position in Ukraine is disintegrating
(cherkasy-orthodox.com.ua/index.php/the-news/1602-2014-08-25-12-47-07; ruskline.ru/news_rl/2014/08/27/cherkasskaya_eparhiya_ukrainskoj_pravoslavnoj_cerkvi_gotova_ujti_v_raskol/).
The priests also said that they
wanted to end the hitherto required custom of praying for the health of Moscow
Patriarch Kirill during church services, a change that Metropolitan Sofroniy
said he would approve. These expressions of Orthodox opinion came during a
session when the metropolitan reported on the election of the new head of the
UOC MP.
The session generated what the
eparchate’s news site said was “a lively discussion,” but the direction that
the majority of its clergy is moving was indicated by the references on the
site to “the military aggression of Russia” in eastern Ukraine and “the
unending armed provocations [by Russia], its massive shootings and support for
separatist forces.”
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