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Moscow Patriarchate received no official address from UOC after its Council, official says

The UOC is a self-governing Church with the rights of wide autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. The Russian Orthodox Church did not receive any official addresses from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) after it held its Council on May 27, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Synodal Department for Society and Mass Media Relations Vladimir Legoyda told TASS on Friday.

The UOC is a self-governing Church with the rights of wide autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate. A decree by the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which was held a week ago in Kiev stated that "additions and amendments to the charter governing the UOC were approved indicating the complete autonomy and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

"We have not received any official addresses," the clerical official said responding to a question as to whether the Moscow Patriarchate received any signals from the UOC following its Council.

He noted that on May 29, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church "rather clearly and intelligibly" expressed its opinion on the current situation. In particular, the Synod stated that the status of the UOC is defined by the 1990 Missive by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and noted that the additions and amendments to the UOC’s governing charter "need to be studied following an established procedure in order to assess their compliance with the aforementioned Missive and the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church.".

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