Dumenko says that Primate of Cyprus met with him back in 2016
According to the head of the OCU, even four years ago, Archbishop Chrysostomos "had no doubt that the Ukrainian Church would receive autocephaly".
Epiphany Dumenko met with the Primate of the Cyprus Orthodox Church back in April 2016. He recalled this during a telephone conversation with Archbishop Chrysostomos, which took place on November 2, 2020, as reported by the press service of the OCU.
Expressing gratitude for “the accession of the Church of Cyprus to the number of Local Churches, which followed the Tomos of autocephaly of the OCU”, Dumenko, in particular, “recalled his visit to Cyprus in April 2016 and a warm meeting with His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos”.
Earlier, in 2019, the head of the OCU posted on Twitter a photo where he was captured next to the Cypriot Primate.
“Back in 2016, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus had no doubt that the Ukrainian Church would receive autocephaly,” Dumenko wrote in the caption to the picture.
Ще у 2016 році архієпископ Кіпрський Хризостом не сумнівався, що Українська Церква отримає автокефалію. pic.twitter.com/nduPmVHvuZ
— Митрополит Епіфаній (@Epifaniy) January 25, 2019
Earlier, Archbishop Chrysostomos said that he never commemorated Dumenko and would not do that. The Primate of the Church of Cyprus also wrote in his letter to Patriarch Kirill that “with all his might he will support the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the issue of the so-called autocephaly in Ukraine".
