Leaders of non-canonical churches of Ukraine differ on 'autocephaly' issue - media
MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Makariy (Maletych), the head of the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), has told about his differences with Filaret (Denysenko, leader of the non-canonical Kyiv patriarchate, on the unification assembly, which is needed to receive a tomos.
The head of the UAOC said in an interview with ZIK television that Filaret did not let him choose a charter and the status and name of the future Church. "The name already exists and you have to join," he quoted Filaret as saying.
"Patriarch Filaret told me 'An Assembly needs to be called urgently.' I told him 'There is no charter to call an assembly.' He said 'I have a charter.' 'I also have, but we need to make one charter out of two," Makariy said. 'No, it will be my charter'," Filaret said.
Makariy said the charter of the new church is not fully clear, either.
"The third issue is what status, what model? When I asked him whether it will be a metropolia, he said angrily that there will be no metropolia, there will be a patriarchy. The exarchs are not saying anything," the head of the UAOC quoted Filaret as saying.
Makariy did not give the date of the unification assembly and did not say whether there is a prospect of its positive decision, saying it is now too early to speak about that because there is no normal discussion of current issues.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with the exarchs from Constantinople on Tuesday. They told him they are working on the last stage, preparations for a unification assembly, and then the granting of a tomos to the head of the new church. They also said they hope for cooperation with all clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and also the Kyiv and Moscow patriarchates.