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Experts, Ukrainian Orthodox clerics discuss Kiev’s striving for autocephaly

The attempts to create a local Church in Ukraine unrelated to Moscow Patriarchate began in the early 1990’s

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Almost every month the media space gets agitated over the reports claiming Ukraine is about to get a national Orthodox Christian Church of its own, the one that will be independent from Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church in general and will fall in line with Ukraine’s drive into a "democratic Europe without Russia".

What role is this initiative, blessed by President Pyotr Poroshenko, playing in the religious situation in Ukraine, which is already quite messy? TASS got the opinions from experts and clerics of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate, a section of the global Orthodox Christian community that enjoys recognition by all the local [national] Churches.

The attempts to create a local [national] Church in Ukraine unrelated to Moscow Patriarchate began in the early 1990’s. The very emergence of the so-called Kiev Patriarchate in 1992 offered a graphic instance of nationalistic politicians’ striving to set up a puppet Church in the country.

The then Metropolitan Filaret, the head of the Kiev diocese who had secured support from President Leonid Kravchuk, declared himself patriarch of an independent Church organization with the so-called Kiev Patriarchate at the head. As this declaration stood at variance with the canons of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Filaret was first dismissed from the execution of office.

In 1997, in the wake of his persistent schismatic activity, the Russian Orthodox Church pronounced an anathema on him and excommunicated him. Although the Kiev Patriarchate has about 4,000 religious communities in its realm today, it has not received recognition from either from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople or from any of the fourteen local Churches.

Adding to the complexity of the religious situation in Ukraine is the existence of one more non-canonical Orthodox congregation - the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, a reformist brand of Eastern Orthodoxy, which the nationalistically minded clerics of Ukrainian ethnicity founded on the ashes of post-World War I Europe and post-revolutionary Russia. The global Orthodox Christian Community does not recognize this Church either.

President Viktor Yushchenko, the leader of the ill-fated ‘orange revolution’, made an attempt in 2008 to rally support from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, "the first among equals" in milieu of Eastern Orthodox hierarchs, in what concerned the efforts to create an independent Church in Ukraine. The incumbent President, Pyotr Poroshenko, made this issue a cornerstone element of his political program and promised resolving the task by the 1,030th anniversary since the adoption of baptism in Kievan Rus, that is, by July 28, 2018.

The Verkhovna Rada contributed to the drive towards autocephaly by making appeals to Bartholomew I in 2016 and at the end of April 2018.

While the answers from Constantinople have traditionally been negative and Bartholomew I has typically said the problem of Church unity can be resolved only in the canonical domain, not by political methods, the tonality changed notably in April.

"The Ecumenical Patriarchate cares for the upkeep of pan-Orthodox unity and for the Orthodox Churches around the world and especially for the Ukrainian Orthodox people who received the redeeming Christian faith and holy baptism from Constantinople," the Synod of the Church of Constantinople said in its reply to the Rada’s latest appeal.

"As the genuine Mother Church, upon getting the petitions for autocephaly from the clerical and secular authorities, which represent millions of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, we have considered the issues concerning the Church situation in Ukraine and have decided to cooperate closely and to coordinate actions with all the sisterly Orthodox Churches," it said.

Dr. Vladislav Petrushko, the professor of the St. Tikhon Humanitarian University told TASS in this connection that the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate had not turned to the Ecumenical Patriarch with whatever requests for autocephaly.

"This means Constantinople, in essence, tramples on the laws as it reacts to the appeals from just one side, the authorities, although the Church is separated from the state in Ukraine," he said. "On the other hand, it supports the schism with its attention."

The whole story has rekindled an old dispute between the Constantinople and Moscow Patriarchates in the sphere of jurisdictions. Constantinople that calls itself ‘mother Church’ for Kiev is trying to challenge the transfer of the Kiev metropolitan see over to the Moscow Patriarchate that took place back at the beginning of the 17th century.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate says now this was not a full-fledged transfer but, rather, the delegating of certain rights in the format of an exarchate.

"The Church of Constantinople has expressed this opinion on a number of occasions since the 1920’s," Dr. Petrushko said.

The current efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to bring politics into the life of the Church cause bewilderment in the country’s Orthodox community.

"The current attempt to obtain autocephaly is marked by more audacity, as well as a huge promotion campaign in the media," said the Reverend Nikolai Danilevich, the chief of the department for external Church relations at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to Moscow Patriarchate.

"They are trying to convince us that everything is already an accomplished fact and we’re only left to succumb to it," he said. "The Ukrainian saying ‘I was wedded in my own absence’ comes to mind. This situation makes the churchgoing public indignant."

"Besides, we don’t understand quite clearly the position of the Constantinople Patriarchate," the Rev Danilevich continued. "Its officials didn’t get any official petitions from our Church. We get the news on the progress of the idea of autocephaly from the media and this is really puzzling."

The experts do not rule out that Constantinople may choose the pattern it implemented in Estonia in 1993 where it granted the rights of an autonomous jurisdiction within its domain to the schismatic Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church.

"Quite probably, the Ecumenical Patriarchate will find it more convenient to set up an organization in Ukraine under its own jurisdictions with one or another degree of autonomy - something that will enable them to put off the process of granting full-blown autocephaly for quite some time," Dr. Petrushko said.

"But in this case the Ukrainian politicians run the risk of getting only foam from the boiling eggs," he said.

The Rev Danilevich indicated that Ukrainian nationalists are awaiting the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decisions anxiously. "Even the most outrageous of them have toned down and stopped seizing our churches for the time being. They vowed to seize the Kiev Lavra [world-famous Kiev Monastery of the Caves - TASS] and other holy places but are sitting on the fence now because they realize radical actions may backfire while they are harboring aspirations for recognition by the global Orthodox Christian congregation."

"Incidentally, the fact confirms the previous seizures of church buildings were well-planned and not sporadic in any way," the Rev Danilevich said.

"The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is going through one of the harshest periods of its history and there is much more politics than religion in the current turmoil," he said. "Politics was found in abundance in the past, too, but now it’s geopolitics, not just politics."

"Someone is trying to turn the problem of granting autocephaly into one more instrument of struggle with Russia and is bolstering the religious organizations with a clearly anti-Russian mindset," the Rev Danilevich said. "There are grounds to believe other strong world powers are involved in the process on top of Ukrainian politicians."

"But the political balance changes and the Church has existed for many long centuries and it shouldn’t be guided by quick-passing calculations," he said.