Spokesman of Kyivan Patriarchate Comments on Calls of Patriarch Bartholomew to Join Canonical Church
KYIV — The spokesperson of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Bishop Yevstratii (Zoria), commented on the statement of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople that he hopes the schism in Ukraine would be overcome soon, which he made during his visit to Russia: “I would like to draw the readers’ attention to the fact that Patriarch Bartholomew does not clarify which exactly ‘canonical church’ he urges [Ukrainians] to join,” noted Bishop Yevstratii. In 2008 a similar call of the patriarch created panic in the Moscow Patriarchate for at that time he clearly meant joining the Constantinople Patriarchate, which is no less canonical than the Moscow one. Moscow then did everything possible to prevent the Kyivan Patriarchate from being admitted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” explained the bishop.
The UOC-KP commented on the patriarch’s statement because certain news agencies which published the statement stressed that he called the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine that are not recognized in the world to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. In reality, the quotes used by journalists and the Russian source do not allow one to make such conclusions, reported the press service of UOC-KP.
According to Bishop Yevstratii, the confusion in the meanings is due to the fact that in Russia and Ukraine, the expression “canonical church” is traditionally associated only with the Moscow Patriarchate. “In general, this term is quite doubtful from the theological point of view but we are not talking about it now. When the ‘canonical church’ is mentioned by Patriarch Kirill or Metropolitan Volodymyr it is clear that they mean their own church – the Moscow Patriarchate. But when the ’canonical church’ is referred to by Patriarch Bartholomew, it is not clear if he means the Moscow Patriarchate,” he stated.
The bishop reminded that Constantinople still considers the subordination of the Kyivan Metropolitanate to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1685-86 canonically not acceptable: “Constantinople recognizes the authority of Moscow over Ukraine de facto but it does not recognize it de jure, which is testified by certain documents and statements. Representatives of the Constantinople Patriarchate consider the annexation not canonical and therefore Ukraine to be the canonical territory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and not the Moscow one. In the view of this, the words of Patriarch Bartholomew about ‘joining the canonical church’ do not at all sound as unambiguous as the Moscow Patriarchate would like.”
“As for ‘overcoming of the schism,’ as mentioned by Patriarch Bartholomew, there are many ways to do so and not only the ways considered by Moscow, namely, repentance and return of all of Ukrainian Orthodoxy under the authority of Moscow,” noted Bishop Yevstratii. He reminded that the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was conducted without any formal repentance.
In closing, Bishop Yevstartii noted that the three phrases on “the Ukrainian issue” from a TV interview with Patriarch Bartholomew are a very small result for Moscow in view of the pomp and duration of the patriarchal visit to Russia. “An interview is not a document, not a statement. There is no signature there. In dealings with the Constantinople Patriarchate, even the slightest details matter for rituals and symbols are quite significant,” summed up the head of the Information Department of the Kyivan Patriarchate.
