Warsaw, September 20, 2019
Photo: news.church.ua
Meeting with His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Poland yesterday, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s representative to international organizations expressed gratitude on behalf of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and the entire canonical Ukrainian Church for the Polish Church’s firm stance in supporting the suffering Ukrainian Orthodox Christians.
His Grace Bishop Victor of Baryshevka took part in the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Warsaw yesterday, where he spoke about the ongoing violation of the rights of the faithful of the canonical Church. While in the capital, he met with the primate of the Polish Church, reports the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Church.
During their meeting, Bp. Victor thanked Met. Sawa for his constant prayerful support for the Ukrainian Church and updated him on the situation in Ukraine after Vladimir Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in the presidential elections. In this context, Bp. Victor expressed hope for the gradual end to the oppression against the Church, referring to Zelensky’s several statements about how the state should not interfere in religious matters.
He also noted that the seizure of churches by the schismatics has decreased in recent months, though it has not stopped.
They also discussed the issue of the recognition of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) by other Local Churches. In turn, Met. Sawa reiterated his unwavering support for the canonical Church and its primate Met. Onuphry.
The Polish Church has proven to be among the most loyal to Orthodoxy and their brothers in Ukraine during the ongoing Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis brought on by the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s ill-conceived creation of a new structure on the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In November of last year, the Holy Synod of the Polish Church rejected Constantinople’s unilateral rehabilitation of the Ukrainian schismatics and forbade its clergy from serving with them, and the Church has remained firm in this position. The Church had previously declared that repentance was a necessary presupposition for any talk of autocephaly in Ukraine. Following December’s “unification council,” Patriarch Bartholomew wrote to every Local Church requesting that they recognize the newly-created OCU, which the Polish Church staunchly refused to do.
Last October, Met. Sawa called upon Pat. Bartholomew to convene a pan-Orthodox council to deal with the Ukrainian matter, but as he has repeatedly done, Pat. Bartholomew ignored this advice and received the schismatics, created a new amalgamated church out of two schismatic groups, and granted them a tomos of autocephaly. The hierarchs and Churches of the Orthodox world continue to call on him to call a council.
Met. Sawa has also personally written to Met. Onuphry to express his support for the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Bp. Victor also noted in his presentation to the OSCE that acts of violence against the Ukrainian Church have not ceased in Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2019, 91 churches of the canonical Church have been forcibly seized and clergy and believers have been physically and verbally attacked. The illegal re-registration of parishes from the canonical Church to the schismatics remains a problem as well.
His Grace also noted that recent events in Ukraine testify to the failure of ex-President Poroshenko and Pat. Bartholomew’s plan. Whereas there have been loud statements in the media about the supposed healing of the schism in Ukraine and the uniting of all the people, this is clearly not the case.
Bp. Victor addressed several other matters, and individual cases of persecution. His full report can be read in English on the OSCE website.
Public Advocacy, an NGO human rights organization with consultative status with the UN, also presented about the violation of the rights of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The organization has created a database of UOC rights violation, available on their website.
The position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was also supported by representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who also spoke about the oppression of the faithful in Montenegro.
The Ukrainian Church also recently expressed its gratitude to the clergy and faithful of the Greek Orthodox Church who have publicly shown their support for the cause of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.
