Jerusalem, November 26, 2020
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On Monday, November 23, newly-appointed Ukrainian ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk met with His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem at the Patriarchal headquarters.
The Patriarch congratulated the ambassador, who was appointed to the position on September 10, on his new diplomatic mission and expressed readiness for constructive dialogue and cooperation, the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel reports on Facebook.
Further, they “they also discussed the situation in world Orthodoxy and in Ukraine, in particular in the context of the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
While Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was elected on a platform of non-interference in religious affairs, the meeting of the ambassador and the Patriarch comes as many in Ukraine sense and fear a return to Poroshenko’s policy of inciting religious enmity.
Pat. Theophilos has thus far stood firm in his stance in support of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, refusing to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” or to allow its clergy to serve at the holy sites in Jerusalem. Given his stance, it is unclear why he would need a briefing on “the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” especially from a political ambassador from a country whose constitution guarantees the separation of church and state.
Of course, Korniychuk is not the first Ukrainian politician to get involved in the matter even under Zelensky. On December 2 last year, Deputy Foreign Minster Vasily Bodnar met with Patriarch Bartholomew to thank him for the recognition of the OCU by the primates of Greece and Alexandria, and on December 8, Ambassador Mikitenko to Egypt thanked Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria for recognizing the OCU.
And the most worrying sign for the Ukrainian faithful was President Zelensky’s recent meeting with Pat. Bartholomew in Istanbul that was held in a much warmer atmosphere than their first meeting a year prior. In August 2019, Zelensky refused to sign a document in which the Patriarch attempted to get the president to pledge the continuity of Poroshenko’s policies in the religious sphere, the recognition of the key role of the tomos in the process of the development of the Church sphere in Ukraine, and the recognition of the OCU as the sole canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
When they met in October of this year, Zelensky profusely thanked the Patriarch for his role in Ukraine and even invited him to come visit his country. The Ukrainian faithful also recall that Poroshenko promised to hand over a number of Church properties to Constantinople, which the Patriarch looks to Zelensky to fulfill.
The Ukrainian ambassador’s meeting with the Patriarch of Jerusalem also comes at a time of increased political activity and pressure by Constantinople and its backers. Earlier this month, Secretary Pompeo paid a visit to both Patriarchs Bartholomew and Ilia II of Georgia, citing both as essential partners in preserving religious freedom throughout the world. Pompeo didn’t even meet with any politicians during his time in Turkey, leading to local media reports about Pat. Bartholomew as an American agent.
The Georgian Church is among the few that have taken no stance either way on the OCU issue. However, as can be seen in Abp. Chrysostomos of Cyprus’ recent letter to Pat. Bartholomew, OCU supporters are now trying to push the outlandish idea that the Russian Church has stolen two dioceses from the Georgian Church, and a book of OCU propaganda is being heavily pushed in Georgia.
Pompeo then met with authorities in Israel, though he did not meet with the Patriarch.
The U.S. State Department’s role in the creation of the schismatic OCU is well-known, and the Constantinople-OCU-State Department axis often cite “religious freedom” to explain the need for overlapping jurisdictions in Ukraine. Although Ukrainians have always been free to attend any parish they like, for the schismatics, true freedom consists in not going to a church where Patriarch Kirill is prayed for.
For Poroshenko, the creation of the OCU was a victory over the “Moscow demons.”
Pompeo made his visits on the eve of the Synodal vote in the Church of Cyprus concerning Archbishop Chrysostomos’ unilateral decision to enter into communion with the schismatics. The session of the Cypriot Synod, held yesterday, had the potential to be a game-changer in the Ukrainian crisis. While Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria chose to recognize the OCU, he did so without any Synodal backing. In the Greek Church, a majority vote of the hierarchs gave Archbishop Ieronymos the authority to handle the situation, and in the end, he too chose to recognize the OCU, though as several hierarchs of the Greek Church note, there was no Synodal vote on the direct matter of recognizing the OCU (It is also worth recalling that a large number of hierarchs who participate in the Greek Holy Synod and Council of Bishops are in fact bishops of the Patriarchate of Constantinople).
Thus, the Church of Cyprus could have become the first Local Church, outside of Constantinople, to Synodally recognize the OCU, or, conversely, it could have become the first Local Church among those whose primates recognize the OCU to officially reject this position of their primate.
However, as OrthoChristian reported yesterday, the official communique states that the bishops voted simply “not to oppose” the Archbishop’s decision, and it seems even the Cypriot hierarchs themselves do not agree on what this means for the Church of Cyprus as a whole.
While Abp. Ieronymos of Greece never voiced a strong opinion on the matter either way before recognizing the OCU, it is a different story with Pat. Theodoros and Abp. Chrysostomos. The Patriarch of Alexandria, who served in Ukraine in the 1990s and personally suffered at the hands of the schismatics, even went so far as to fly to Ukraine to urge the faithful to remain steadfast and loyal to Christ in the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. For his part, Abp. Chrysostomos was adamant that any unilateral actions from any Church would only further cement the growing schism in the Orthodox Church.
A year later, Pat. Theodoros, whose Patriarchate is financially dependent upon the Greek State Department, suddenly commemorated Epiphany Dumenko during the Divine Liturgy, and last month, Abp. Chrysostomos made the unilateral decision to commemorate Dumenko as well.
In September of this year, Pat. Theodoros, who had already been commemorating the schismatics for nearly a year, paid a visit to Cyprus, not long before Abp. Chrysostomos first commemorated Dumenko, meeting with several hierarchs. Secretary Pompeo paid a visit to Cyprus around the same time.
However, it is notable that Pat. Theodoros, who scandalized the Cypriot hierarchy last year by commemorating Dumenko on their territory, was not invited to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in any Cypriot churches during his time there this year. The recognition of the OCU clearly was and continues to be a contentious issue in the Church of Cyprus, where several hierarchs have been very outspoken in favor of the canonical Church, for which they have been slandered in the media and by their own primate.
One member of the Cypriot Synod revealed that several hierarchs from the majority actually voted against their conscience yesterday, “whether due to temperament or economic dependence.” In fact, the bishops had requested a secret ballot, so they could vote freely, without pressure, but this was firmly denied by the Archbishop.
Abp. Chrysostomos was previously committed to neutrality, as voted upon by the Cypriot Holy Synod in February 2019. And in 2018, he promised Pat. Kirill that the Church of Cyprus would always stand by the canonical Ukrainian Church. However, after Cypriot media dug up a scandal with Abp. Chrysostomos obtaining a passport for a known criminal fugitive and after a visit to the Phanar in March of this year, the Archbishop’s mind was changed.
Abp. Chrysostomos has often touted his role at pan-Orthodox conferences over the past 30 years, saying he is well aware of the position of all the Local Churches on the Ukrainian question and the question of how to grant autocephaly. However, as the Archbishop has explained, during his visit to Constantinople in March, he suddenly received new information that he had never come across in his 30 years of experience—that the Kiev Metropolis was never truly given to the Moscow Patriarchate, as Constantinople maintains. After that, he was determined to recognize the OCU, though he was unable to get his Synod to go along with him.
Today, Pat. Theophilos of Jerusalem remains the last primate of the Local Churches considered to be from the Greek world to reject the OCU. Reports from within the Patriarchate have previously spoken of political pressure coming from Joe Biden and other American politicians. In January of 2019, representatives of the then-newly-created OCU intended to travel to Jerusalem to concelebrate for the feast of Theophany, though Pat. Theophilos was able to resist the pressure.
There are also reports that the Patriarch is being pressured by hierarchs from Constantinople, and Abp. Chrysostomos of Cyprus has openly admitted that the Patriarch of Jerusalem was being pressured to recognize the OCU.
However, Pat. Theophilos even went so far as to invite hierarchs from every Local Church to gather in Amman, Jordan, in February to discuss issues of Church unity against the background of the Ukrainian scandal. Although the gathering was attended by a minority of the Local Churches, Jerusalem’s initiative greatly angered Pat. Bartholomew, who believes only he has the authority to gather Orthodox hierarchs.
Thus, to sway the Patriarch of Jerusalem would be a major victory for Constantinople.
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