US involvement in the creation of SLC is obvious, – experts
Political observer Viacheslav Pikhovshek is sure that America is pressing on the Patriarch of Constantinople in the matter of the SLC.
According to journalist Viacheslav Pikhovshek, the United States actively participates in the creation of the United Local Church. This is confirmed by the increased attention of American diplomats to matters of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. He said this on May 30 in the television programme "Chronology of the Day" on the air of the "NewsOne" channel.
The TV presenter believes: pressure from the US explains "why Patriarch Bartholomew is so persistently going to the adventure that is splitting the Orthodox world".
Pikhovshek talks about the meeting between Archbishop Jerome of Athens and all Greece and the US Ambassador to Greece Jeffrey Payet, centered around the creation of the Single Local Church in Ukraine. He recalled that Jeffrey Payet was an ambassador to Ukraine during the "Euromaidan" in 2014.
The journalist also recalls the visit of the special envoy of the US State Department on International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback to Turkey on August 14, which he paid to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Pikhovshek also mentions the trip of former ambassador to Ukraine Jeffrey Payet to Athos, during which, according to the diplomat, he discussed important issues of the Orthodox world with the abbots of the monasteries.
"And to be complete the picture, it is important to remember that on May 5, 2018, Minister of Health Ulyana Suprun said that she allegedly ran into Patriarch Bartholomew at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul.
The meeting of Archbishop Jerome of Athens and all Greece with the US Ambassador to Greece Jeffrey Payet took place on May 29. As the Greek media reported, the key issue under discussion by the US Ambassador and Archbishop Jerome was the question of the creation of the United Local Church in Ukraine. The US ambassador stated that "the Orthodox Church can make a decisive contribution to the strengthening of peace and the reconciliation of peoples". Archbishop Jerome, for his part, stressed that Ukraine requires the consent and understanding of all parties on the church issue.
On May 5, the acting Minister of Health Ulyana Suprun joined the negotiations on the SLC with Patriarch Bartholomew. She said that she had "accidentally" met the Patriarch of Constantinople in the airport of Istanbul. After her arrival in Ukraine in 2015, Ulyana Suprun was the director of the Rehabilitation Medicine School of the Uniate Ukrainian Catholic University.
