Recently, the head of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) Epiphany Dumenko addressed His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, head of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), with an appeal to unify their church structures into one Ukrainian Church. This appeal was encouraged by the current Kiev government, which has been moving every closer in the direction of banning the UOC altogether, after years of blatant persecution against it, which was moreover often carried out by clergy of the OCU themselves.
Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye has voiced the opinion of the faithful in the following address to His Beatitude Onuphry.
His Beatitude Onuphry Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine. Photo: pravlife.org
Your Beatitude,
Having read the appeal from the head of the “OCU,” which was addressed not only to you but to all the clergy and laity of our Church, I make bold to express my opinion on the essence of the proposals presented in it.
My flock entrusted to me by God and I always pray and will continue to pray for the healing of schisms and divisions among those who profess the Orthodox faith in our country, and for the long-awaited peace and spiritual unity to finally come. The desire of my heart is for all our people to sing praises to the Holy Trinity with one voice and one heart. But, of course, you understand that this unity cannot be artificially created and must not be built around national, political, or any other earthly preferences. This unity is possible only around Christ and in Christ. And it can only be possible on the canonical foundation of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
The grace of the priesthood and the recognition of apostolic succession cannot be resolved by administrative means. It can only be true and valid if the sacrament is performed by persons who have canonical authority. Without adhering to this condition, we would bring chaos into our sacraments, which would lead not to unity but to the destruction of the foundations of church life.
The architects and founders of the current schisms are not working for Church unity, but against it, ignoring not only the opinions of millions of faithful but also the canons. By creating new church formations, they rely on the assumption that the Orthodox people can be manipulated through propaganda or fear of violence. Based on the example of our flock, it can be said that they have not succeeded in this. The so-called unification council, initiated by certain political leaders, aimed not at achieving the unity of Orthodoxy in our country but at its destruction through direct violence against canonical law and church tradition.
Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye We do not refuse dialogue with all people of goodwill who sincerely desire the unity of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. But personally, I am perplexed as to how one can, while using violence, threats, beatings, deceit, sacrilege, and theft, speak of the need for love and peace. How can one speak of light while doing the works of darkness? God sees the hearts of people. In my opinion, the dialogue about our unity should begin with the recognition of the crimes committed against our Mother Church and repentance for them.
The discussed appeal contains a number of inaccuracies and errors, either deliberately or out of misunderstanding. Nowhere and never, either officially or in private conversations, did His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) express the opinion that we urgently need to achieve unity by ignoring the canons of the Orthodox Church. He always asserted the opposite. His clear position was known to all of us—unity on a solid canonical foundation! It is also true that the intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarch was “canonically justified.” Moreover, I know that the Ecumenical Patriarch himself, in personal meetings (I participated in one of them in Tbilisi) with representatives of our episcopate, publicly rejected the “rumors” that he intended to recognize as a “church” those whom he himself recently called schismatics. He also vehemently denied that preparations were being made to proclaim the “Tomos.” But while saying one thing, the Ecumenical Patriarch did another thing—which, in my opinion, is also incompatible with Gospel ethics and morality.
Your Beatitude, you know that all the claims we now hear from the mouths of some politicians and deputies are contrived and completely devoid of common sense. Our conscience is clear before God and our people. We have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. Any persecution, oppression, and threats from the enemies of our Church will not shake our faith or our confidence in the truth of our stance. However, any compromise with people who serve worldly interests will only make us more vulnerable. We will not be understood or supported by representatives of other Local Churches, who have fearlessly defended us at the international level. For, if we do this, we will lose the help of God.
I have no doubt that the appeal from the head of the “OCU” is driven not by a desire to be united with us in spirit and truth but by other intentions far removed from these desires. On my own behalf and on behalf of the flock entrusted to me by God, in response to this appeal, I would like to emphasize once again that the unity of the Church of God can only be achieved by the return to Her fold of those who have strayed from the Truth and taken the path of falsehood.
Your humble servant,
