Yelensky allows UOC to appeal to Local Churches with a request for council

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: interfax.com.ua

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, stated that if the UOC breaks its ties and exits from the Russian Orthodox Church, it is then free to determine its own canonical future. He said this in a comment to Interfax Ukraine on August 21.

"The UOC might (then) appeal to all Orthodox Churches and say: let's convene an Orthodox council on this issue," Yelensky suggested.

As previously reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists, relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the OCU are on the brink of collapse: they are searching for a way out of the crisis.

Read also

US helps restore Orthodox church in Turkey after earthquake

Greece signs memorandum on protection of Jerusalem Patriarchate's shrines

Next week, the Greek Parliament will ratify a document on the protection of the cultural heritage of the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

Greek bishop calls imposition of same-sex marriage a threat

Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythera urged families to become a “domestic church” amid threats to the Christian family in Greek laws and school curricula.

Patriarch Bartholomew arrives in Budapest for opening of Orthodox center

The Ecumenical Patriarch has arrived in Hungary, where he will preside over the consecration of the Orthodox center "Phanarion."

OCU raiders stage attack on seized church in Kyiv, media

OCU "hierarch" Serhiy Horobtsov published a provocative post online regarding St. John's Church in Bykivnia seized by his people.

Kamianske Eparchy commemorates New Martyr Ioann Mohylevsky