Newly-formed Orthodox Church in Ukraine was Recognised by Uniates and the LGBT

Translated from Fraza.ua.

Not a single one of local Orthodox Churches has sent her greetings to the “unifying council”, and the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) that was formed there. Meanwhile, as the journalists from Fraza found out, the OCU was recognised by the US State Department, the LGBT community, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (what I call “Uniates“). The Vatican has at first recognised the Church but then refused to recognise it.

Expert on religions, Alexandr Voznesensky wrote that the LGBT community recommends the newly-formed “unified Church” under the leadership of Epiphanius. The expert added: “This is what I understand as World recognition. After this, recognition of local Churches is not needed.”

TASS reports that in the opinion of the Deputy Spokesperson under the leadership of the 70th Secretary of State, Mark Pompeo, Robert Palladino, “the creation of this Church is a historic event for Ukraine.” He greeted, in the name of United States, the head of OCU, “metropolitan” Epiphanius with being elected.

Today (the article was published on 18 of December 2018), the press secretary of OCU, Eustratius (Zorya) announced that a report, which has appeared on the Vatican website, which spoke about the election of Epiphanius, de facto means the Pope has recognised has recognised the Church. He wrote: “It is de facto a sign, that in accordance with the order of  the ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox Churches, by the power of the canonical recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Ukrainian Church and her Metropolitan, this Church acquired subjectness in the eyes of Rome.”

However, Zorya’s joy was premature. As it turned out, Vatican’s official portal did not recognise Epiphanius. This was announced on 18 December at the directorate of the Holy See’s press service.

The head of Ukrainian Greek Catholics (UGCC), Svyatoslav also sent greetings to supporters of the OCU in connection with the “unification council” and the election of a new representative. This was announced by the head of the pastoral service in Ukraine’s penitentiary system of the Patriarchal curia of the UGCC, Konstantin Pateley, on his Facebook page.