By UrduPoint News / Sputnik
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew did not travel to Ukraine to attend the unification council of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches on Saturday, local media reported, citing sources in the patriarchate.
The Ukrainian authorities and the newly created church want to get a tomos from the Constantinople patriarch on autocephaly. However, the tomos may be obtained only by a leader of the “unified” Ukrainian church. The unification council is meant to choose the leader of the new independent Ukrainian Orthodox church and adopt the structure’s statute. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which has been the only canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine for hundreds of years, has refused to take part in the unification council.
The patriarchate stressed that Bartholomew is at his residence in Istanbul, according to Greece’s Romfea news agency.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian media reported that the patriarch arrived in Kiev. It was followed by reports that the event had been rescheduled for the afternoon instead of morning, as the participants were still waiting for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s arrival.
The Romfea news agency, in turn, reported that the opening of the unification council had been delayed as only two representatives of the UOC-MP arrived to attend the event.
The participants of the “unification council” Simeon Shostatsky and Olexander Drabinko are excommunicated from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the church’s spokesman Archbishop Clement of Nezhin and Priluki said later on Saturday.
Shostatsky and Drabinko previously served as UOC-MP metropolitans.
The Moscow Patriarchate compared the participation of Shostatsky and Drabinko in the “unification council” in Kiev with the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.
“The participation of two archbishops from the canonical church in an event aimed at its destruction, of course, cannot but upset. But let’s not forget that there was one Judas among the 12 apostles. If there were 90 apostles, one would have expected that there would be six or seven Judas, not two,” head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said, referring to the total number of UOC-MP bishops � 90.
Priests of the Vinnytsia region have already been called to serve in support of the excommunicated Simeon Shostatsky, who participated in the “council,” the Union of Orthodox Journalists of Ukraine reported, citing its sources. According to the union, the call was made by Vinnytsia’s rural dean, Archimandrite Dorofey, who also participated in the non-canonical “council.”
The Moscow Patriarchate calls the situation around the autocephaly the “legalization of schism,” saying that it would have catastrophic consequences and would affect millions of Christians in Ukraine and other countries, and has already broken the Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
