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Dear Friends,
Today I read an article at RISU that made me think. I would like to know the comments of our forum members on this issue.

Various Orthodox Looking For Alternative To Moscow
06.27.03 (RISU.org.ua) � Parishes of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (BAOC) intend to go under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) in Russia. Archbishop Petro (Hushcha) of the BAOC has begun preliminary correspondence on the subject. Similar movements of Orthodox seeking alternative jurisdictional ties, separating from the Russian Orthodox Church, are also happening in Russia itself. The information agency �Ohliadach� (Observer) reported this information on 26 June 2003, citing the Moscow eparchy of the UOC-KP as a source.

�Ohliadach� mentions representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROC-OR) who are now in a crisis that divides supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate and its opponents, representatives of which have renewed contacts with the UOC-KP.

Archbishop Varnava (Prokofiev) of Kany and Europe, head of the ROC-OR, is leading this movement away from the Moscow Patriarchate. Archbishop Varnava in 1992 appealed in the name of the ROC-OR to the late Patriarch Volodymyr Romaniuk and his assistant, now Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) of the UOC-KP, proposing the establishment of brotherly relations between the two churches.

For this act, the other Russian hierarchs censured Archbishop Varnava and he was forced to refuse open cooperation with the UOC-KP. On an unofficial level, however, relations have continued to the present.

With the secret blessing of Archbishop Varnava, Archimandrite Iosaf (Shybaiev), dean of the Russian parishes of the ROC-OR, went under the jurisdiction of the UOC-KP. The archimandrite then was ordained as bishop of Belgorod (Russia) and designated a permanent member of the Hierarchical Synod of the UOC-KP.

There are now three eparchies of the UOC-KP in Russia which, if new members continue to come over from the ROC-OR, might be separated into a separated Russian autonomous jurisdiction of the Kyivan Patriarchate.

The UOC-KP also has contacts with various branches of the True Orthodox Church (TOC) of Russia, in particular with Metropolitan Epyphanii Kaminskyi. The UOC-KP has also entered into liturgical union with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the old calendar TOC of Greece, which has given a whole church complex in Athens to the Kyivan Patriarchate.

With UOC-KP Patriarch Filaret and the Greek old calendar eparchies of the UOC-KP in the USA and Europe as intermediaries, a dialogue has begun with other Greek jurisdictions concerning the creation of a single old calendar TOC of Greece with extended autonomy as part of the Kyivan Patriarchate.

The Synod of the UOC-KP considers that all the grounds exist for the creation in the near future of a powerful Orthodox coalition alternative to the Moscow Patriarchate for the post-soviet horizon, and for world Orthodoxy in general.

Source: http://observer.sd.org.ua/news.php?id=676

Greetings all,
I shouldn't get emotionally involved over these things however I cannot help but be saddened by the continuing horizontal and vertical splitting of jurisdictions. I realize that for many reasons people will have either positive or negative takes on this story and that's understandable.

My great hope is for a future unified Orthodox Church that will speak as one to the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. My great prayer is for the reunion of all churches east and west, but these events are showing me that this may be an even more remote possibility as time goes on.

Michael

This article gives some insight into why alternatives need to be sought.

http://www.religioscope.info/article_124.shtml

Dear Michael,
I think I know where you're comming from and I also agree with your points of view, but maybe it's time that the Orthodox world and maybe the Christian world "including us" as a whole, wake up and see that something is seriously wrong with the Moscow Patriarchate. They aren't exactly doing what they should be doing, or better they should stop doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing.
You will never have a united Orthodox church with the philosophy that they are practising that's for sure.
Lauro

Dear Lauro,
I don't disagree with you. I was just reflecting on the sorry state of affairs.

It is lamentable.

Michael

PS and this is just the "big story". this kind of thing is played out throughout the church on a smaller scale. The names change and the game is the same.

Pax
Michael

I'm very very confused. The Kievan Patriarchate under Patriarch Filaret is separated from the Moscow Patriarchate, has tried to support a Ukrianinian identity and has in good relations with the Pope and the Catholic Church. On one side, it sounds logical that the BAOC wants to enter in communion with the KP because their situation is similar.

But the True Orthodox Church of Greece (it's the Synod of Metroipolitan Cyprian right?) and the ROCOR are very anti-ecumenical, ultra-conservative and refuse communion with the "modernists". The ROCOR also fought against the collaboration of Russian hierarchs with the Soviet Union and the ecumenist possition of this Church while Patriarch Filaret was very pro-Russian during the Soviet years.

Isn't a union between the TOC or the ROCOR with the KP like mixing oil and water? If the conservative old calendar churches entered in communion with the KP, it would be seen like opportunism, leaving ethical principles aside.

I wonder if this is really the ROCOR and not one of the Split-offs from the Synod (Like ROCA etc) That might explain why they would make "common cause" with Filaret of the UOC-KP. The ROCOR itself has been in negotiations recently with representatives of the MP to bring about a healing. Unfortunately, the former Metropolitan +Vitaly has left ROCOR and created this extreme ROCA group. Very Sad. But they are very small.

Dear Snoopy,
I agree with you, it is somewhat confusing. I also agree with you when you say that it's understandable if the BAOC wants union, but the ROCOR and the TOC is strange I agree. And from what is posted above the TOC have already given a church complex to the UOC-KP in Greece already. I guess we have to sit back and see what happens.
Lauro

There has not been the slightest sign of any interest at all in the Russian Church Abroad to have any connection with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate. There are several Old Calendarist judicatories in Greece, and the one which has established relations with Philaret has no present connections with the Russian Church Abroad (or with anybody else, so far as I know). Incognitus