Dumenko: There is full understanding between OCU and Phanar
The head of the OCU said that he feels "full support" of his structure from the head of the Phanar.
During his stay in Istanbul, Epifaniy Dumenko told the Ukrainian Consul General in Turkey that there is a full understanding between the Phanar and the OCU.
Dumenko told the Ukrainian Consul General in Turkey Roman Nedilskyi that neither the OCU nor the Phanar pay attention to "hostile attempts" by any forces and individuals "acting in the Moscow spirit" to question the Tomos.
According to him, the OCU acts "in truth" and he sees "good fruits" of such actions, as "the Local Church of Ukraine is growing, strengthening, and has authority both in Ukrainian society and among international secular and religious institutions".
Dumenko told Nedilskyi about "current issues of interaction between the OCU and the Ecumenical Patriarchate" and assured that he feels "full support of our Local Church, Ukraine as a state and the Ukrainian people from the Mother Church" and personally from the Phanar head.
He also noted that there is full mutual understanding between the OCU and the Phanar, which "undoubtedly causes a negative reaction of our opponents, who are trying again and again to question both the Tomos and the status of the OCU’s autocephaly".
As earlier reported, in Bila Tserkva clerics of the OCU, supported by the authorities, destroyed the doors to the cathedral with a sledgehammer, a crowbar, a grinder and a chainsaw and seized the building.
Also, in the UOC cathedral in Ivano-Frankivsk, OCU reps gassed people and later UOC believers received death threats.