Ukraine: Orthodox hierarchs refuse to take part in Poroshenko's 'unification council'

RT
Sat, 15 Dec 2018 05:53 UTC

© Sputnik/Mikhail Palinchak

Poroshenko and Ukrainian clergy

Hierarchs of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church have refused en masse to take part in the so-called 'unification council' championed by the country's president, sending "invitations" to the event back without reply.

The unification council kicks off on Saturday in Kiev. The event, announced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko himself in early December, is supposed to "bring together" members of various Orthodox Churches of the country to create a new, "independent" church.

While the event has been pompously hailed by the country's senior officials, things look rather bleak since the only canonical religious organization - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate - refused to take part. The head of the Church, Kiev Metropolitan Bishop Onufriy, returned his "invitation" (effectively an ultimatum) back to the sender.

The mailbox of the man who sent the invitations - the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I - has apparently been full of late, since 56 hierarchs have already followed suit, the Church said on Thursday. Apart from them, the Church's bishops refused to take the invitations in the first place.

While Ukraine boasts two other self-styled Orthodox 'churches', one of which even has its own self-proclaimed 'patriarch', any sort of unification council with the majority of schismatics in attendance would effectively be void, experts have repeatedly warned.

"A significant presence of the canonical church is a must, since it will be just a schismatic gathering, which can only create yet another schismatic religious institution," senior fellow with the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, Oleg Nemenskiy, earlier told RT.

The ongoing church rift was triggered by the move of the Constantinople Patriarchy earlier this year to send its exarchs to Kiev. The move violated the principle of non-interference in affairs of other Churches, observed by the Orthodox Church, and caused a bitter row with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The "independent" status of the church, desired by senior Ukrainian officials, has turned out to be much less impressive than initially advertised. Earlier this month, the Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarchate unveiled a draft statute for the yet-to-be-founded church. It puts the entity in a position entirely subordinate to Constantinople. If this church actually emerges, it would be far more restricted in its actions than the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. While it is a constituent part of the Moscow Patriarchate, it is essentially free to act on its own, while only its head must be approved in Moscow.

Comment: The soulless government wants to aggregate all independent institutions under its control, or at the very least alienate Russia and congregations with some religious ties to people who happen to be Russian. That assures a domination of message and information, further cutting off mankind from its spiritual legacy, to service the state. See also:

• Ukrainian President Poroshenko calls for Russian Orthodox Church to be expelled: 'Go home!'
• Ukrainian president Poroshenko calls Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine a 'national security threat'
• Fusion of church and state: Kiev's split from Russian Orthodoxy will boost 'nationalism' and 'chaos' in Ukraine
• Poroshenko's meddling with church violate Ukraine's constitution
• Ukraine government manipulates Orthodox church to break its thousand year old ties with Russia

The meeting went ahead as planned:

"It happened," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kyiv on December 15. "This day will go down in history as the sacred day of the creation of the autocephalous local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The day we finally receive our independence from Russia."

That's rich, coming from someone as unspiritual as Poroshenko.

Metropolitan Epifaniy was elected by the council to head the new church.

The meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was a crucial step in years of efforts to create a church in Ukraine that is independent of Moscow.

Several thousand people rallied outside the ancient St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv where the meeting had taken place behind closed doors.

For or against?

Poroshenko has made an independent church a campaign pledge as part of his campaign for reelection in 2019.

Which he has no chance of winning legitimately.

"Let's stand and pray for a Ukrainian church to be created today," Poroshenko said as he greeted several of the rally's participants before going into the cathedral.

"The creation of our Church is another declaration of Ukraine's independence and you are the main participants of this historic event," he added.

Meanwhile, Poroshenko's press secretary, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, posted on Facebook a photo from inside the cathedral where the priests are meeting.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate said on December 13 that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the "first among equals" in the global Eastern Orthodox faith, will hand over a "tomos" -- a decree granting autocephaly, or independence -- to the future head of the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine on January 6.