Moscow, October 5, 2022
Photo: newsmobile.in
The life of the dioceses and parishes in the areas that have been annexed to Russia will be organized by a department of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In particular, the matter will be handled by the Office for the Affairs of Dioceses in the Near Abroad, “whose competence includes dioceses in Ukraine,” Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations told RIA-Novosti last week.
The Office was created by the Russian Holy Synod in late March to deal with Church issues in the former Soviet republics.
However, at its Local Council in late May, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared itself completely independent of the Russian Orthodox Church, though its precise status remains unclear, and just over a week later, the Russian Synod declared that it was receiving the Crimean Dioceses of the Ukrainian Church into the Russian Church.
Until that point, they had remained part of the Ukrainian Church, even after the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014. Likewise, even after the foundation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in 2014, the dioceses in those areas remained part of the Ukrainian Church, which has always stood for Ukrainian territorial sovereignty.
Referendums were held in the Republics and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye Republics last month in which the people overwhelmingly voted for annexation to Russia, though the votes are rejected by Ukraine and other countries.
Nine dioceses of the Ukrainian Church are located entirely or in part in the annexed territories.
“The future is known to God, Who guides the paths of His Church. And I’m not a prophet to proclaim the future,” said Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to Patriarch Kirill on External Church Relations, when asked about the jurisdiction of the dioceses in the annexed territories.
On September 30, a ceremony was held at the Kremlin to sign agreements on the admission of the Donets and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Provinces to the Russian Federation, which was attended by the Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Dionysiy of Voskresensk, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, and Metropolitan Panteleimon of Lugansk, who ceased commemorating His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine in June following the UOC’s declaration of independence.
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