Epiphanius: Transfer Of Christmas Celebration To December 25 Premature

Primate of Orthodox Church of Ukraine / Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Epiphanius, considers that it would be premature to transfer celebration of Christmas from January 7 to December 25.

He said this on the ICTV channel, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

Epiphanius also warned against attempts to introduce radical reforms in order to avoid a threat of a split.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) intends to elect its management bodies once the tomos on autocephaly is obtained on January 6, 2019.

Epiphanius noted it would be wrong to state about any dependence of the OCU on Constantinople after the tomos is received.

The OCU rules out forceful seizure of the cathedrals of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate.

He noted that there are a lot of hierarchs, clergymen and believers who really support the independent Ukrainian church but are afraid to join it at once.

On December 15, the ecumenical assembly of the Ukrainian orthodox churches elected Epiphanius as the Primate of the OCU / Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.