Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 19, 2020
"Abp." Igor Isichenko (left) with the Uniate head Sviatoslav Shevchuk (center). Photo: ugcc.org.ua
Yesterday, March 18, the Council of the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church unanimously decided to liquidate itself in order to join the Uniate Ukrainian Greek Catholic church.
The diocese is headed by “Archbishop” Igor Isichenko, who was an instrumental player in the early days of the Ukrainian schismatic movement after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Although bearing the same name as the group formerly headed by Makary Meletich that united with the “Kiev Patriarchate” to form the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” the Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC was, in fact, a legally-recognized separate group since a schism occurred in the UAOC in 2006. Thus, “Abp.” Igor was not among the “hierarchs” rehabilitated by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in October 2018 and the diocese was not part of Constantinople’s OCU project.
According to the diocesan website, the meeting at which the Diocesan Council resolved by absolute majority to terminate its activities and remove its statutes from the state registry was held in the format of a video conference due to the state-imposed quarantine because of the coronavirus.
During the meeting, the members of the Council approved the decision of the board of the “Patriarch” Mstislav and St. Dimitry Catechetical-Pastoral Center to join the Kharkiv Exarchate of the Uniate church and approved the decision of the consistory to transfer the rights of the founder of the St. Benedict of Nursia Library to the Uniate Kharkiv Exarchate.
The Council also recommended its parishes and Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-Called to make the necessary changes to their statutes corresponding to the change of jurisdiction.
The move was not a sudden decision. Isichenko had already begun to move closer to the Uniates in 2014-2015, and work on uniting his diocese with the Uniates, whom he believes have best preserved the ancient traditions of the Kievan Church, had begun at least by 2018.
In May 2018, Igor Isichenko served with the Uniate head Sviatoslav Shevchuk in the consecration of the cornerstone of a parish that was to be shared by his diocese and the Uniates.
“We are laying down the first joint church in Ukraine that children of the once unified Kievan Church are going to build; the Church which today, unfortunately, is divided and exists in different confessions. But Christ is its cornerstone,” Shevchuk said during the service in 2018.
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The Kharkiv-Poltava Diocese of the UAOC was created on July 27, 1942 and revived in 1992. It has been headed by “Abp.” Igor since 1993.
He was close to “Patriarch” Dimitry of the UAOC who appointed him manager of the UAOC Patriarchate in 1996. On September 14, 2000, he was elected to the same position by the Local Council of the UAOC and later temporarily led the dioceses of Cherkasy and Kiev. In 1995, he led a movement opposed to the unification of the UAOC and the KP.
In November 1996, Isichenko was one of the “hierarchs” who consecrated Makary Maletich as a “bishop.” However, as Isichenko and the other “bishops” had no valid consecration or Apostolic Succession, they could not pass it on to Maletich, who later came to head the UAOC, from which Isichenko and his diocese split in 2006.
Isichenko himself was “consecrated” by Viktor Chekalin, a defrocked deacon of the canonical Russian Orthodox Church who became one of the main restorers of the UAOC.
In November 2018, Chekalin was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in jail by the Southport District Court in Queensland, Australia in September for repeated fraud and forgery.
The lack of Apostolic Succession in the hierarchy of the UAOC and KP has proven to be a major obstacle to several Local Churches acknowledging the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s acceptance of their “hierarchs” and “clergy” as such and the their formation into an autocephalous church.
For more information, see the articles, “An Overview of Church Schisms in Ukraine” and “On the Question of the Canonical Ordination of Makary Maletich” by Archpriest Rostislav Yarema, and “To Recognize a ‘Church’ Having Hierarchs Without Apostolic Succession is a Serious Challenge” by Protopresbyter Anastasios Gotsopoulos.
