Chișinău, Moldova, November 7, 2022
Met. Vladimir of Chișinău (left) and Pat. Kirill (right). Photo: newsmaker.md
The Liberal Party of Moldova is calling on the Moldovan Orthodox Church to renounce the Moscow Patriarchate and unite with the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Metropolis of Bessarabia.
These two canonical jurisdictions have been operating in parallel in Moldova over the past 30 years.
“The head of the [Russian] Orthodox Church, Kirill, supports Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova, headed by Metropolitan Vladimir, is part of the Russian Patriarchate,” said Mihai Ghimpu, former acting President of Moldova and former head of the Liberal Party, at a press conference on Thursday, November 3, reports NewsMaker.
“This means that indirectly, we as citizens of the Republic of Moldova, being Christians, support this war because Kirill is the head of the Russian Church and ours,” Ghimpu argued.
NewsMaker notes that Met. Vladimir participated in the latest session of the Russian Holy Synod in Moscow on October 13, when Pat. Kirill decorated him with the Patriarchal Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov. He also recently served at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra outside Moscow for the feast of St. Sergius.
Thus, the Liberal Party calls on the clergy and faithful to move out of the Moscow Patriarchate and into the Romanian Patriarchate, accusing His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir, who has headed the Metropolis of Chișinău since 1989, of tacitly supporting a pro-war position.
The Moldovan Church has had to defend itself against such accusations several times recently. On Friday, it issued an official response to the “provocative and baseless statements” from Liberal Party members:
The Orthodox Church of Moldova, through the voice of Metropolitan Vladimir, condemned from the beginning the war started by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, calling it fratricidal, which must be ended immediately, in the name of the human values preached by universal Orthodox teaching. In this vein, in all the more than a thousand holy places under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova, with the blessing of the primate, the clergy and the people, in full unity, constantly raise prayers for peace throughout the world and especially in the neighboring and friendly country of Ukraine.
Thus, the Church calls on politicians to consult actual Church sources and statements “before launching accusations.”
As for Met. Vladimir celebrating St. Sergius in Russia, the Church emphasizes that “the veneration of saints knows no geographical or political boundaries, and they don’t belong to one or another Local Church, but belong to Orthodoxy in all its fullness.”
Regarding the politicians’ calls for priests to simply change jurisdictions, the Moldovan Church writes:
We consider that such calls for self-willing can be made either by ignorant people, who don’t know the importance of obedience in the Church and the mechanisms of passing from one canonical ecclesiastical structure to another, or by people driven by the desire to create division and misunderstanding among the clergy or maybe even for both reasons at the same time.
While Ghimpu and other Liberal Party politicians referred to Met. Vladimir as a “Muscovite” and “KGB-ist,” the Church reminds that His Eminence labored in the early years of Moldovan independence to unite all believers in Moldova, regardless of national or political affiliation.
Further, the Moldovan Orthodox Church has brotherly love for the Romanian Church’s Metropolis of Bessarabia, the statement emphasizes, with its clergy and faithful studying in and going on pilgrimage to Romania, while Bessarabian clergy and faithful go on pilgrimage to Ukraine and Russia.
In conclusion, the Church states that, despite such provocations, it will remain faithful to Orthodox teachings, “expressed through peace, compassion, and good understanding between people,” and it calls upon politicians to give greater consideration to their public statements.
The Churches of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all of which fall within the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, have also been facing considerable state pressure, especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February.
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