V. Legoida, head of the Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, has stated that interference by authorities in the Church’s internal affairs and inter-church relations contradicts not only the secular law but also canonical statutes.

“The authorities cannot participate in solving canonical problems arising in relations between Orthodox Churches. The more so that such participation may be rude and peremptory”, Mr. Legoida stated, commenting a draft appeal of a group of the Ukrainian Supreme Rada deputies to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople “to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine”.

“An attempt to bring pressure to bear upon the Ukrainian Orthodox Church through an appeal of the Supreme Rada to the Patriarch of Constantinople to interfere is nothing but pressure upon the canonical order of Universal Orthodoxy, which, by the laws in all countries, settles all the arising problems in accordance with its internal statutes”, he added.

Mr. Legoida reiterated that representatives of all the canonical Local Orthodox Churches, including the Patriarchate of Constantinople, recognized on repeated occasion the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as the only canonical Church in Ukraine.

“This position of the Primates of Universal Orthodoxy was once again re-affirmed quite recently, namely, during the Synaxis of the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches, which took place in January 2016 in Chambesy”, he concluded.