His Beatitude Sviatoslav: Unity of Catholics and Orthodox is not utopian thinking
After the creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and Constantinople’s abolition of the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church over the Ukrainian episcopate, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) became the second largest and most influential Christian denomination in Ukraine. According to various estimates, the UGCC comprises about 6 million faithful.
The Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church is in communion with Rome, but retains the Byzantine liturgical tradition. This creates a unique opportunity for it to conduct ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox who actively seek ways to overcome the schism that arose in 1054 and was partially overcome in 1965 after the lifting of mutual anathemas. The ultimate goal of this dialogue is the complete Eucharistic unity in the one Church of Christ. That is, the opposite of what the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) did, when on October 15, 2018, it broke Eucharistic communion with the Mother Church—the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The Head and Father of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych and Metropolitan of Kyiv, and the head of the OCU, His Beatitude Epiphanius (Dumenko), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, are united by the fact that they were both elected to lead their respective churches at a fairly young age. Both stand by the position of the state, sharply condemn Russian aggression, and are open to broad Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. This unity of attitudes and views creates optimistic prospects for the unification of Ukrainian Christians. His Beatitude Sviatoslav even believes that in the future a patriarchate of the united Kyivan Church may appear in Ukraine.
At the same time, in an exclusive interview for "Glavcom,” the head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav, warned the newly created autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the risks of becoming an instrument of political battles and the temptation to identify with the state apparatus. After all, political interference, as evidenced by historical experience, most often leads only to divisions and conflicts in the religious context.
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