Phanar pledges to establish a liaison of OCU with Local Churches
Phanar's obligations to establish contacts between OCU and Local Churches are specified in the Agreement on Cooperation between Ukraine and Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Constantinople has committed itself to promote "active cooperation and dialogue with leaders and authorized representatives of all centers of Ukrainian Orthodoxy," as well as maintain and establish contacts "between the Autocephalous Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches in other countries." This is stated in the text of the Agreement on Cooperation and Interaction between Ukraine and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew signed on November 3, 2018 in Istanbul. A copy of the document, provided by the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, was published by the Ukrainian News.
The Patriarch of Constantinople, who declares that he “loves the Slavs and appreciates their loyalty,” began to fulfill his part of the agreement before the granting of the Tomos, having sent letters to the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches demanding that they recognize the new church structure in Ukraine.
Recall, for his part, Petro Poroshenko promised to facilitate the acquisition of "buildings, premises, other property items" by the representation of Phanar in Ukraine.
At the same time, the Agreement contains a clause on the possible termination of the contract and, accordingly, cancellation of all agreements: “The parties may terminate this Agreement at any time upon prior written approval”.
Despite the fact that representatives of Constantinople, in particular, Archbishop Daniel (Zelinsky) of Pamphilon, suggested that the issue of recognizing the OCU by the Local Orthodox Churches was a matter of one to one and a half months, so far none of the Local Churches (except Constantinople) has recognized the OCU and the legality of its “episcopate”: the majority of Autocephalous Churches favored holding a Pan-Orthodox Council or Synaxis of the Primates of the Local Churches on the “Ukrainian issue”.
As the UOJ reported, on March 2, 2019, in Salzburg, Patriarch Bartholomew met with the Primates of the Cyprus and Albanian Orthodox Churches. Greek media suggest the Patriarch of Constantinople tried to convince the Primates to recognize the OCU.
