KYIV – Ukraine received more encouraging signs that it could receive canonical permission to form a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church following an assembly of more than 100 metropolitans and archbishops at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul that took place on September 1-3.
The move would further erode Moscow’s influence in Ukraine as the two predominantly Orthodox countries continue fighting a multi-front war on the battlefield, in cyberspace, diplomatically and on energy issues.
Indications of optimism for autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church came following Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s meeting with Russian Patriarch Kirill on August 31 ahead of the Synaxis of the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.
Ecumenical Patriarchate Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
The assembly of leading Orthodox hierarchs is consultative in nature and is comparable to a meeting of directors of various shareholding groups, whereas the decision-making body, or Synod, is more like a managing board of directors.
The decision to grant canonical recognition, via a Tomos of Autocephaly, “will be implemented… This was announced to Patriarch Kirill during his visit,” said Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, after the meeting of the two primates, as cited by Greek-language religious news agency orthodoxia.info.
“The ecumenical patriarch has decided to use all ways possible to resolve the issue of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he added, according to the Ukrainian news site Hromadske International’s correspondent in Istanbul.
The Russian Orthodox Church and its branch in Ukraine, which is known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate, have opposed autocephaly for Ukraine’s Orthodox Church. Moscow considers the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) a renegade Church, which was formed in 1992 after the country re-gained independence amid the USSR’s implosion a year earlier. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) also isn’t canonically recognized. Both the UOC-KP and the UAOC have spoken out in support of a Tomos of Autocephaly for the Church in Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church didn’t mention the issue of the Tomos after the leaders of the Constantinople and Moscow Churches met, according to its external relations department. It was a talk “between two brothers,” the Russian patriarchal press service said in a statement on August 31.
“Without coordination with His Holiness, I wouldn’t like to let you into details, although there was nothing secret… a talk between the heads of two Churches who are aware of their responsibility for the state of universal Orthodoxy…,” Patriarch Kirill said before departing Istanbul.
A statement by the Ecumenical Patriarchate about the meeting didn’t provide details on the substance of the talks.
A video released following their meeting showed Patriarch Bartholomew refusing a glass that his Russian counterpart had initially reached for, but which the server had denied him while pointing to another glass.
After the Russian hierarch took the one pointed to him by the server, who wore a wired earpiece, Patriarch Bartholomew rejected a beverage, as did other Church officials who were seated in a row perpendicular to the pair.
Historical context
In his opening remarks at the ecclesiastical assembly, the patriarch of Constantinople said that the Byzantine-era “Mother Church” never granted permission to move the “see of the Kyivan Metropolis… to Moscow” in the 14th century.
Patriarch Bartholomew said that his predecessor, Patriarch Dionysios IV, under “great political pressure” in 1686 “was obliged to issue a letter granting Moscow the license to ordain the metropolitan of Kyiv,” according to a transcription provided by Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., who participated in the Synaxis.
Patriarch Bartholomew continued: “no matter how much some [people] wish to embellish the situation in Ukraine, history proves them wrong and presents indisputable arguments demonstrating that the origin of difficulties and reactions in Ukraine are neither a recent phenomenon nor something created by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”
Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (left) with Patriarch Kirill of Russia.
He noted the “tireless efforts on the part of our Kyivan brothers for independence from ecclesiastical control by the Moscow center. Indeed, the obstinacy of the Patriarchate of Moscow was instrumental in occasionally creating repeated mergers and restorations of ecclesiastical eparchies, uncanonical elections of bishops as well as schisms, which still afflict the pious Ukrainian people.”
Patriarch Bartholomew affirmed that Moscow doesn’t have jurisdiction over “today’s Metropolis of Kyiv” and that the “canonical dependence of Kyiv to the Mother Church of Constantinople remained constant and uninterrupted.”
He cited the “uncanonical interventions of Moscow from time to time in the affairs of Kyiv” and added that “the toleration on the part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in previous years do not validate any ecclesiastical violation.” The ecumenical patriarch went on to note that Russia is “responsible for the current painful situation in Ukraine,” and “is unable to solve the problem.” Thus, “the Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed the initiative of resolving the problem in accordance with the authority afforded to it by the Sacred Canons and the jurisdictional responsibility over the eparchy of Kyiv, receiving a request to this end by the honorable Ukrainian government, as well as recurring requests by ‘Patriarch’ Filaret of Kyiv appealing for our adjudication of his case.”
His remarks were based on a 90-page scholarly study by Bishop Makarios of Christouplis, who the ecumenical patriarch said would address the Synaxis.
Moscow reaction
In previous statements, the Moscow Patriarchate has accused official Kyiv of “politicizing” the issue of autocephaly.
The Russian Patriarchate described President Petro Poroshenko’s support for a Tomos of Autocephaly as a “desperate attempt at holding on to power,” an Interfax news agency report said on August 24.
The UOC-MP characterized UOC-KP Patriarch Filaret’s support for autocephaly as a “call to religious war,” BBC Ukraine reported on May 10 citing Archbishop Klyment (Vecherya).
Pro-Russian politicians have also warned that granting a Tomos to Ukraine would lead to civil war.
Former Russian citizen and current Opposition Bloc lawmaker Vadim Novinsky has reiterated over the past year that politics shouldn’t mix with religion. In July, the metals businessman and multi-millionaire told the newspaper Livyi Bereh that if “Mr. Poroshenko’s initiative will be implemented… then it is very likely that the country will collapse and [lead] to civil war.”
On April 19, a Verkhovna Rada resolution expressed support for the president’s moves to create a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church with 268 (out of 450) votes.
The vote came two days after Mr. Poroshenko, together with the primates of the two unrecognized Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, submitted an appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew for autocephaly.
The ecumenical patriarch, in turn, on July 27 publicly stated that his ultimate goal is to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.
A Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is scheduled for October, and the issue of granting a Tomos of Autocephaly to Ukraine is preliminarily on the agenda.