The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate doesn't intend to be subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret has said.
"If we’re talking about subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate then we won’t even have such a dialog," Filaret told reporters on Wednesday.
"They called on us to return to the single and holy, catholic, and apostolic church. We’re [already] in such a church. Why are they not just saying ‘return to the Moscow Patriarchate?’ Because they’re ashamed of saying ‘return to us – to the Moscow Patriarchate.’ We’ve already been in the Moscow Patriarchate and it cost us a great deal," he added.
"Our church is self-sufficient, we have [a congregation of] 14 million – you saw today how many people came to this celebration. That’s why we can exist, but at the same time we want to be in a praying unity with the whole Orthodox world," Filaret said.
As reported, the issue of the church split in Ukraine was one of the topics of the meeting of the Holy Synod of Moscow Patriarchate held in Kyiv on July 26.
