Head of UGCC: ‘Russian World’ Has Nothing to Do with the Church

Today Christians are tired of religious divisions. This is felt among the Orthodox, who cannot understand why they are divided into three churches, and among the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who are asking when there will be one national church, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the UGCC, said in an interview for the newspaper Lviv Regional Council.

According to the head of the church, ecumenism will be possible when we “adapt the church to some geopolitical projects.”

“’The Russian World has nothing to do with the church. It is an alternate chain that someone is trying to throw on the UOC-MP and use for the benefit of a foreign state. The faithful of this church understand this,” he commented

Recalling a recent visit to Ukraine by Cardinal Kurt Koch, the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Patriarch Shevchuk said that then, in fact, was the first time the Primate of the UOC-MP, the head of the UGCC, the Papal Nuncio, and the president of this Pontifical Council met.

“We all sat together at one table in the Kyiv Cave Monastery. It was an unprecedented event! It is difficult to remember when something like this happened at such a high level. Moreover, the meeting was very constructive and warm,” he explained. Actually, then Metropolitan Volodymyr (Slobodan) said that 20 years in the case of ecumenism were lost.

“I think that step by step we will move toward unity, for this is what we were taught by Jesus Christ. In this light of ecumenism, it is not only possible, but necessary. We need to realize that without it we cannot call ourselves a Christian community,” said the head of the UGCC.

Explaining the concept of ecumenism, the hierarch said it consists of finding unity. In this case, in his opinion, religious relativism (the position “it doesn’t matter what church”) is unjustified. “If we do so, we will never have our own church,” said the hierarch. In addition, he said, in the world there is a trend toward religious illiteracy. “Sometimes I hear even the first people in the country use non-Christian terminology when seeking to express their religious feelings – they talk about energy, aura. These are foreign things... That is why we should teach Christians their faith, their native terminology. Then people will be open to ecumenism,” said the patriarch. The words of Patriarch Shevchuk were published by the UGCC Information Department.

Background from RISU: A national survey conducted by the Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Policy Research in March 2013 found that only 18.7% of Ukrainians are aware of Patriarch Kirill’s doctrine of the “Russian World.”  

As noted by the Razumkov Center, this doctrine is better known by those who are critical of it: 28.5% of the faithful of the UOC-KP and 35.1% of Greek Catholics. By regions, the most people who have heard of it are in Western Ukraine – 36.3 %; and the lowest in the east – 12.9 %.

Of the UOC-MP respondents, 70.9% believe that it is aimed at “the spiritual unity of the fraternal Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.”

However, the absolute majority of the faithful of the UGCC (95%) believe that this doctrine is aimed at “the restoration of the Russian Empire.” A similar view is held by 69.5% of the believers of the UOC-KP, 15.1% of the UOC-MP, and 38.6% of other Orthodox believers.

In western Ukraine, this doctrine is most associated with the empire, and in the south with the fraternal union of peoples.

Patriarch Filaret also called Patriarch Kirill’s concept an attempt to restore the Russian Empire.

“The Russian World is an attractive motto as before was “communism has a bright future.” Under the concept of the Russian World is hidden a new Russian Empire, the Russian government, and Russian imperial Church. Patriarch Kirill invented the Russian World so that a spiritual unification centered around Moscow took place, then a political one, and ultimately a territorial one. That means to restore the Russian empire. But his desire is unrealistic because you can never step into the same river twice. Now are new times,” said Patriarch Filaret.