Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev is optimistic about the recognition of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its course.
A few hours before the convocation of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine gave an interview to the newspaper “To Vima” in which he called on the Metropolitans of the Church of Greece “not to believe in the propaganda about the Church of Ukraine.”
He said, “We are neither schismatics nor did we ever tear the Seamless Robe of Jesus. And, for God’s sake, we did never cause any harm to the Church.”
The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine explained that “We are Ukrainian citizens, that is another nation from our Russian brothers. We have our own language, our own culture, our own history, and therefore we want to have our own Church. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mother Church of Constantinople officially recognised and established the Churches of other peoples in the Balkans and granted them autocephaly. […] We want to communicate with all the Sister Churches, as we already do with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This is the only way to express our desire to be united with you. […] That is why I repeat to our brother protopriests: our case is no different from the other Churches to which the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted autocephaly. “
Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev highlighted that in comparison with other Churches, the Ukrainian issue had a different political background, because “in other cases, there was not any counter-power, that is a secular power to hinder the plans of the Churches to chart their own course.”
However, he is optimistic about the unity of the Orthodox Churches: “I do not believe that Orthodoxy is threatened as a whole. And I certainly will not accept that the plans for the establishment of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Ukraine to be threatened by anyone.”