Kiev, March 24, 2020
Photo: spzh.news
On March 18, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stated that “the main problem for Orthodoxy today is the erroneous ecclesiology of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, resulting, in particular, in the non-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine.”
Reflecting upon this statement in an interview with First Cossack on March 21, His Eminence Archbishop Theodosy of Boyarka, a vicar of the Kiev Metropolia, added that, moreover, Constantinople’s fallacious ecclesiology is obvious to the entire Orthodox world.
Commenting on the Synod’s recent statement on Constantinople and the urgent need to resolve the Ukrainian Church crisis arising from Constantinople’s un-Orthodox ecclesiology, Abp. Theodosy noted that, unlike the Catholic church, “the ecclesiology of Orthodoxy is the ecclesiology of conciliarity, of the conciliar governance of the Church.”
“Every Church represented at inter-Orthodox meetings by its Patriarch, or a representative of its Synod,” the Archbishop added.
“The fallacious ecclesiology of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Patriarchate we can say now, became obvious in the last few years to the entire Orthodox world. We knew about it, but it was never publicly articulated by the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” His Eminence said.
“After Rome’s fall away from the fullness of the Orthodox world, the Patriarch of Constantinople was perceived all these centuries as the first among equals—the first in honor among equal Patriarchs. He was never given importance as a leader, as the ruler of the Orthodox world… Nevertheless, the Patriarch of Constantinople assigns such functions to himself, at least in the lobbies of the Phanar,” the Ukrainian hierarch explained.
And this “declares the fact that the Patriarch of Constantinople teaches incorrectly about the Church, and we need to do something about it,” he added.
And, according to Abp. Theodosy, the Phanar’s creation and recognition of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” is one of the results of this un-Orthodox ecclesiology.
“The OCU is only a by-product—the recognition of a group that, according to the general opinion of the Orthodox world, has no Apostolic Succession in its consecrations and ordinations. It was suddenly recognized by Constantinople unilaterally and autocratically; it was recognized that they have Apostolic Succession, and in this, the papal claims and ecclesiological fallacy of the teaching of the Patriarchate of Constantinople were openly revealed,” the Archbishop concluded.
