UOC rep: Visit of Phanar head is like Pope’s arrival after Union of Brest

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich. Photo: UOJ

Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, said on his Telegram channel that the upcoming visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to Ukraine is like the arrival of the Pope after the Union of Brest and called this idea "unreasonable and inexpedient".

“It looks as if the Pope came to Ukraine (then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) two years after the Union of Brest (1596), or as if Martin Luther (the founder of Protestantism) came to Rome two years after the beginning of the Reformation (1517)," said the spokesperson for the UOC.

“After Patriarch Bartholomew stirred up the church environment of Ukraine with his intervention and tomos and, accordingly, became the cause of conflicts, violence and seizures of churches, it is unreasonable and inexpedient to come here 2 years after those turbulent events, the consequences of which are still ongoing," he added.

As reported, the Phanar hierarch arrived in Kyiv to prepare for Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit.
 

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