KIEV, December 17. /TASS/. The actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople have come in the way of restoring Orthodox unity in Ukraine "for a long time, if not forever", the address of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate informed.
The Synod stated on Monday, that the so-called Unifying Assembly, which took place on Saturday in Kiev, "is a union of schismatics, and has no relation whatsoever to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church." "Essentially, nothing has changed for our church, as the schismatics remain in the schism, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains the true Christ’s church in Ukraine," the address stressed.
The Holy Synod also noted that these proceeding were started by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which claims the right to interfere in the affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to it having been in its jurisdiction at a certain point in time.
In this regard, the Holy Synod reminded that the Russian Orthodox Church was forced to proclaim its own autocephaly due to the actions of Constantinople, which signed the union with Rome in 1439. "This spiritual betrayal of the Orthodox Faith has become the main reason of separation from Constantinople and the Kiev Metropolitan See," the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate noted. Later, the Kiev Metropolitan See began to form part of the Russian Orthodox Church at the end of the 17th century.
"This is why today, the Constantinople Patriarchate has no moral or canonical right to interfere in the domestic affairs and the spiritual life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Moreover, the actions of the Constantinople Patriarchate have already led to the possibility of Orthodox unity in Ukraine being dismissed for a long time, if not forever," the Synod’s address says.
On December 15, Kiev hosted the Unifying Assembly held under the supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and brokered by the Ukrainian authorities. After the council, Pyotr Poroshenko, the president of a secular Ukraine who had attended the schismatic gathering, declared the establishment of a new church, the Autocephalous Local Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Epiphany of Pereyaslav and Belaya Tserkov, who had earlier served as a bishop of the non-canonical Kiev Patriarchate, was elected as its head.
The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate declined Constantinople’s invitation, stressing that both the unifying assembly and the newly-founded church were illegitimate.