Patriarch Filaret Comments on Visit of Ecumenical Patriarch to Russia
KYIV – The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP), Patriarch Filaret, commented to the website of the UOC-KP on June 4, 2010, the results of the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew I to Russia in May.
The hierarch expressed satisfaction with the fact that the relations between the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church are improving. “It is not pleasant when there are arguments in Orthodoxy, especially when it relates to primacy,” stressed Patriarch Filaret.
The hierarch positively evaluated the words that the Ecumenical Patriarch addressed to Metropolitan Volodymyr wishing him to witness the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy in his life time. “Such good wishes we heard also being addressed to us when Patriarch Bartholomew visited Kyiv in 2008 for the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus. He then said similar warm words to then President Yushchenko and to Ukraine and to the future national Orthodox church…A visiting guest always says pleasant things.”
According to Patriarch Filaret, the two patriarchs could talk about two main issues, the place of each church in the order of the Orthodox churches and how autocephalous and autonomous churches are established.
According to the hierarch, Moscow “dreams about the first place in this diptych. That is the Ecumenical Patriarch has to move and the Patriarch of Moscow should replace him…for Moscow thinks that it is the ’third Rome,’ that it is the largest of the Orthodox Churches.”
According to Patriarch Filaret, these questions were discussed at all-Orthodox meetings prior to the Great Council. But the way of establishing autocephalous and autonomous churches and the question of diptychs were not agreed upon then because of the different positions of the church of Constantinople and Moscow. Now, this most important question was preliminary agreed upon at the pre-council committee meeting in Shambezi. It was agreed upon that autocephaly is established on consent of the mother church and proclaimed by the Ecumenical Patriarch with the consent of all the local churches.
According to the head of the Kyivan Patriarchate, this is the gist of the matter because if an autocephalous church is established on the consent of the mother church, this means that the Ukrainian Church will never be able to become a recognized autocephalous church as it will not receive the consent of the Russian Church, which considers itself the mother church.
“Even though in reality the Russian Church is the daughter of the Ukrainian one and not the mother, for the Russian Church was separated from the Kyivan Church in 1448 and not vice versa. Therefore, this agreement suits the Moscow Patriarchate,” explained Patriarch Filaret.
He stresses that the thesis “autocephalous churches are established only with the consent of the mother churches” suits both sides as, according to Patriarch Filaret, Constantinople does not want to lose the American Church, which has sought autocephaly for a few years now. Constantinople can lose the larger part of its flock and support.
Patriarch Filaret stresses that the mechanism of obtaining autocephaly only on the consent of the mother church does not conform either to the historic circumstances of establishing autocephalous churches, nearly all of which proclaimed their autocephaly themselves or to modern needs as such mechanism makes obtaining autocephaly impossible.
Therefore, according to the head of the Kyivan Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Church does not support such agreement.
“I think during the negotiations the question of autocephaly was raised as one of the main ones. We do not know if they reached any agreement but we will see it from the speed of the preparation of the All-Orthodox Council. Anyway, we firmly hold the position of the national Ukrainian church and we have all grounds for that. As for the wish for Metropolitan Volodymyr to see the schism overcome in his life time, let God grant it that the one national Orthodox church should be established in Ukraine in his life time. We are for that and also desire it. But one church not within the Moscow Patriarchate but as a local one that is an autocephalous Ukrainian Church,” stressed the patriarch.
At the same time, Patriarch Filaret rejects any calls to “repentance” before the Moscow Patriarchate.
