Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich believes the clergy who have left for the OCU can return to the UOC to provide pastoral care to the west-oriented Ukrainian-speaking flock.

The Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, in the program “Right to Faith” on the First Cossack youtube channel, said that he considers it possible that the clergy who have left for the OCU will return to the canonical Church, in which they could continue to provide spiritual guidance to their western-oriented Ukrainian-speaking flock.

The priest believes that the Church in Ukraine has not yet passed the test of universalism, whereby the flock wouldn’t be divided by the linguistic or political issues. “They (the priesthood that fell into schism – Ed.) have to be part of our Church, because they used to part of our Church but departed from us. They, within the framework of a single Church, would be engaged in pastoral care of the pro-Western-oriented part of the population, let’s say so,” Father Nikolai noted. “They must return to our Church to save at least some.”

The spokesman of the UOC believes that strong geopolitical centers outside Ukraine are tearing the country apart and this can continue until strong political elite comes to power, which will defend the interests of the people and canonical Orthodoxy.

As the UOJ reported, thanks to its centrist position, our Church unites the country, according to the spokesman of the UOC.