Athens, July 19, 2016
The Patriarchate of Constantinople has reacted to the appeal of the Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) deputies on granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, reports Interfax-Religion.
The Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople has not turned down this appeal but, instead, has charged a special synodal commission with examining it, reports the Romfea Greek Church news agency.
As was earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada recently called upon Patriarch Bartholomew I to issue a Tomos granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in the Ukraine and to recognize the 1686 act, in accordance with which the Metropolitan See of Kiev was transferred to the Patriarchate of Moscow “in defiance of canons”, as invalid. However, the Patriarchate of Constantinople did not respond to that appeal.
Commenting on this initiative, the Russian Federation’s Foreign Ministry Ombudsman for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov has said that it is a transgression of the Ukrainian law and that the Venice Commission should provide an opinion on this matter. The ombudsman has also pointed to the fact that the Verkhovna Rada is promoting a number of bills that “are aimed at the ultimate legalization of taking over church buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by raiders.”
There are three active Orthodox religious organizations in the Ukraine: the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP), the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and the latter two are not recognized in the Orthodox world.
Earlier Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko more than once expressed the idea of establishing one local (autocephalous) Orthodox Church in the country. One of the goals of this initiative is to separate UOC MP from the Patriarchate of Moscow.
It would mean the legalised persecution of the Orthodox in Ukraine (granted it's begun before any Greek interference already). We would see and suffer the seizure of temples, Cathedrals and monasteries—all in the name and under the auspices of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The only beneficiaries would be a minority of schismatics (one body of which already has a ready-to-hand false patriarch), rich, ruthless and irreligious oligarchs, nationalist fanatics and finally foreign forces who do not mean us well.
It would be a unique event in the life of the Church—a great and fierce persecution inaugurated not by a pagan emperor, atheist dictator, Muslim khan or sultan but by a Patriarch of Constantinople. A fraternal betrayal to spite one who they call but do not treat as an equal.
Lord God spare the much-suffering people of Ukraine at least that.
Does his holy eminence, the first among ectera, ectera, ectera, realise that the overwhelming majority of religious Ukrainians belong, love and are loyal to the Patriarchate of Moscow? Have suffered so much and so recently—are even now marching in a Cross procession across the country while being harassed and threatened all along the way. While some Greeks think they can decide whether or not we are one with our brothers and sisters in Russian Federation and Belarus.
Said Greeks lost the right to pick a Patriarch for the Russias when they fell into heresy (save St. Mark) in an attempt to unite with the West in the 15th century. And look at them today. Itself, repeats, history and all that. I presume the loss of that right carries within it the loss of any right (supposing it to have ever existed) to choose which lands are autocephalous as well.