Kyivan Patriarchate Unclear About Meaning of Patriarch Bartholomew Words on Overcoming Divide in Ukrainian Church

KYIV – The press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate responded to the meeting of June 8 between President Yanukovych and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul. The Kyivan Patriarchate is grateful to the Ecumenical Patriarch for his prayers for Ukraine and the unity of the Ukrainian Church and hopes that the mother church of Constantinople will continue, according to its position in Orthodoxy, not only by prayer but through other ways to act to help overcome the church divide in Ukraine, which according to the statement is provoked by non-canonical acts of the Moscow Patriarchate. 

The UOC-KP stresses that it did not separate from the Orthodox Church but only from the Moscow Patriarchate and does not recognize its superiority over the Ukrainian Church.

The UOC-KP also stresses that “even the Patriarch of Constantinople himself in the Tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Poland (1924) noted that the annexation of the Kyivan Meropolitanate to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686 ‘was carried out not according to the prescriptions of the canonical rules’ and therefore is not lawful.” 

It is not quite clear for the UOC-KP what was meant by Patriarch Bartholomew’s words “that all our brethren who separated should return to the canonical church.”

“What is the Ecumenical Patriarch talking about? Does His Holiness mean the return of the Kyivan Metropolitanate, which was unlawfully separated by Moscow, to the previous canonical order and subordination to Constantinople? In that case, the words of the patriarch should be addressed to the Moscow Patriarchate who unlawfully retains the authority over the church in Ukraine. Obviously, the Most Holy Patriarch had an opportunity to bring forth this position to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow during his recent visit to Russia.

“Perhaps, His Holiness means subordination of the Kyivan Patriarchate to the Moscow one? But in that case this idea contradicts the position of Constantinople on the non-canonicity of the authority of Moscow over the Ukrainian Church, whose position is clearly known to us from the mentioned Tomos.

“Perhaps, the Most Holy Patriarch Bartholomew meant subordination of our hierarchy, clergy, and believers to his see? But neither the bishops of the Kyivan Patriarchate, the priests, nor laity ever separated from the Constantinople Patriarchate as they never were under its authority. And what was not separated cannot “return to unity.” From the point of view of the historic context, the Kyivan Metropolitanate to the best of its ability for a log time resisted the attempts of the Moscow hierarchs to subordinate it to themselves and firmly kept the unity with the Constantinople See until the moment when, to our regret, the patriarch of that time, for rich gifts and under pressure, unlawfully issued a letter on the basis of which Moscow seized power over our metropolitanate. Therefore, it remains unclear from the known words of the Most Holy Patriarch what specific ways of overcoming the divide of the Ukrainian Church he sees apart from the passionate prayer which we also share and bring to the throne of God.”

The UOC-KP hopes that Patriarch Bartholomew meant the return of all Orthodox in Ukraine to the prayer and Eucharistic communion, which is the expression of the fullness of unity in the church. “It is not of our will that we have no such fullness but we at all times are ready to do everything possible and necessary to renew it.  However, we are firmly convinced that overcoming church divide and subordination of one church to another are different things and one cannot be substituted for the other,” reads the statement of UOC-KP.

The UOC-KP stresses that it persistently and invariably seeks renewal of the Eucharistic communion with all the national churches and hopes that the Ecumenical Patriarch “will promote this good work in the fatherly way.”