“It is by all means proper that a bishop should be appointed by all the bishops in the metropolitan province. <...> But the confirmation of what is done in each province should be left to the metropolitan.
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“The bishops of every metropolitan province must know the bishop who presides in the metropolis, and he must undertake the care of the whole province, because all who have business come from all quarters to the metropolis...
“The bishops of every nation must acknowledge him who is first among them and account him as their head... But neither let him who is the first do anything without the consent of all.
“Just as Paul was called to become an apostle by the Head of the Church Himself, so too we received the Tomos and the proclamation of our dignity as an autocephalous Local Church from the first among the Primates of the Orthodox Church – from the Ecumenical Patriarch, who alone is vested by the conciliar canons with such a right
“Indeed, it was not from Moscow that we received our autocephaly. It was not Moscow that granted us the Tomos, nor did recognition of our Church’s authenticity depend upon Moscow—just as the authenticity of Paul’s apostleship did not depend upon the opinions of his opponents,” Metropolitan Epifaniy stated. “Just as Paul was called to become an apostle by the Head of the Church Himself, so we received the Tomos and the proclamation of our status as an autocephalous Local Church from the first among the Primates of the Orthodox Church—the Ecumenical Patriarch, who alone, according to the conciliar canons, possesses this authority.
“the Lord had chosen Metropolitan Onuphry for primatial ministry in these difficult times
“Metropolitan Tikhon assured His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of the prayers of the OCA clergy and faithful.
“a concelebration between him and MOC hierarchs would have been taken by Constantinople as the MOC indirectly recognizing the validity of OCU Sacraments and clergy.
“Through these remarks, Metropolitan Epifaniy also aligned his criticism with the position of the Patriarchate of Alexandria regarding the activities of the Russian Church in Africa, describing its representatives there as “Russian ecclesiastical usurpers.”