A member of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Austrian Metropolitan and Exarch of Hungary Arsenios declares that the decision on granting autocephaly, that is, an ecclesiastical independence, to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be made "when the time comes."
According to Radio Liberty, the comment was made on the sidelines of the meeting of the Holy Synod, which is being held for the second day in Istanbul.
“We talked about the tomos. The decision will be made when the time comes, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate has the right to make such a decision,” said Metropolitan Arsenios.
When asked about relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which opposes the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Arsenios said: “We don’t want to create new problems, but with God's help we will act so that everything is as peaceful as He wishes.”
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The exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who were in September in Kyiv in the framework of preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, arrived in Istanbul, where on October 10 they are addressing the Synod.
One of the exarchs, Bishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States, in response to the question of whether the Ukrainian church is ready for unification, said: "I think that the churches in Ukraine are ready for unification. They have been, for the past 27 years, if not for several centuries. It's hard to say when this is going to happen. This is all I can say at the moment. ”
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As UNIAN reported earlier, a three-day meeting of the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate began in Istanbul on October 9. It is expected that the issue of providing the tomos on the autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be considered.
The meeting is taking place behind closed doors.
The head of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate's information department, Yevstratiy Zorya, noted that the discussion of the issue would be taking place only the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch delivered their report.
