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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gaLTUHZM4yMTS3zCHs9wy94ZnvYwD9ADQFPG0Ukraine splinter church seeks independence
By MARIA DANILOVA (AP) – 1 day ago
KIEV, Ukraine — A breakaway Orthodox Christian church in Ukraine is pressing its call for recognition as a legitimate entity independent of the Moscow-based church that dominates the faith in the former Soviet Union, officials said Monday.
The appeal comes weeks after the head of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, visited Ukraine and criticized splinter churches seeking independence.
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Church sent an official request last week to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the 250 million world's Orthodox Christians. It said the church "is ready and strives" to come under Constantinople's jurisdiction as an independent group.
Spokesman Yevhen Zapletnyuk said the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church believes that winning recognition from Bartholomew would will help heal the rifts among Ukraine's Orthodox believers, many of whom want to come out of Moscow's shadow.
"We have extended a hand," Zapletnyuk told The Associated Press. "We believe this is the way to salvation."
Allegiance in Ukraine's predominant Orthodox Christian faith is split among three major churches. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and the larger Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate have lobbied Constantinople for recognition as legitimate and independent of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, which is subordinate to Patriarch Kirill.
Ukraine's pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko has championed those efforts as part of a campaign to shed Russia's political, economic and cultural dominance over its neighbor and integrate with the West.
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Church has some 1,200 parishes and 700 priests in the nation of 47 million, according to the State Committee on National Religions.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, which broke away after the 1991 Soviet collapse, claims 14 million parishioners and some 3,000 priests, and opinion polls show it is gaining popularity. The Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church claims 28 million followers in Ukraine and more than 9,000 priests.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved I wonder how this could be reconciled with this passage from the UAOC website: "Autocephalous means we are independent. It means that we do not answer to an Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople or anywhere else. A Ukrainian Church caanot be Ukrainian if it submits to someone"
Metropolitan Mefodiy, Worldwide Primate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Kyiv Post, Nove 29, 2006.
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Interesting how the meaning of "autocephalous" became inverted over time. Originally, an autocephalous Church was a diocese that answered directly to the Patriarchate without being suffragan to a metropolitan province.
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Man is it ever the truth that Ukrainians ain't known for their submissiveness. The only other less submissive folks in Eastern Europe are the Lithuanians. trust me: it takes one to know one! LOL
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Man is it ever the truth that Ukrainians ain't known for their submissiveness. The only other less submissive folks in Eastern Europe are the Lithuanians. trust me: it takes one to know one! LOL Perhaps the Ukrainians aren't submissive because they've been beaten down so often and for so long by foreign oppressors. This needs to be acknowledged. That having been said, the focus on nationalism as the main reason for autocephaly is very unsettling. Fr. Athanasius McVay has penned something that can shed light on this concern: http://annalesecclesiaeucrainae.blogspot.com/2009/08/witness-of-faith-gift-to-ukraine.htmlI quote: ... segments of Ukrainian society could be leaning towards the very nation-worship that Sheptytsky spent his life to remedy. While wholeheartedly supporting every Ukrainian cultural and national aspiration, Kyr Andrei warned his people not to instrumentalize religion for secular motives or, worse still, attempt to use it as a weapon against others. Ukrainians today need to recognize that, just as in Sheptytsky's own lifetime, lobbying for him, when not rooted and grounded in Catholic Christian values, will do harm instead of good.
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I think this is a great step but sadly I think the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not going to grant this request. Relations between the EP and Moscow are getting better with recent visits and statements but if the EP were to do this Moscow would be, to say the least, not very pleased.
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It would be a repeat of the Estonian crisis, only on a much bigger scale.
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This is a very good article written by Father Anthansius. He makes very good points.
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It has been becoming clear over the last few years that, as per Chalcedon canon 28, the Ecumenical Patruarch wishes to establish himself as Patriarch of the Barbarians.
But the Ukrainians have been Christians for 1000 years and can they really be seen as barbarians?!
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I agree with Latin Catholic - this would be far worse than Estonia. The rift in Orthodoxy that would result is hard to even imagine.
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I think what everyone needs to realize is that Ukraine is fast developing into two nations within a nation -- the "Ukrainian" western and central Ukraine and the "Russian" Novorossiya. Carpathia is a difficult case, with a large pro-Russian population as well as the Rusyn Catholics. Trying to impose but one national church will never work. Hopefully, a compromise can be reached -- let Ukraine have its own church headed by a Metropolitan, but permit the ones who wish to remain under Moscow to remain as they are. The problem is that both sides want an "all-or-nothing" solution that smacks more of pure politics than zeal for the Word of God.
All politicians should also be banned from having any part in the negotiations. Keep Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and Yanukovich out. If this had been treated as a purely religious problem from the beginning without any politicians getting involved, this problem might have been solved long ago.
Last edited by asianpilgrim; 09/02/09 10:50 PM.
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It has been becoming clear over the last few years that, as per Chalcedon canon 28, the Ecumenical Patriarch wishes to establish himself as Patriarch of the Barbarians. It is also important to note that Moscow sees it self as the Third Rome. We have two Patriarchates that are competing for leadership in the wider Orthodox world and unfortunately the Church in Ukraine is caught in the middle. the Ukrainians have been Christians for 1000 years They need their own independent national Church. They need to decide, not Moscow or Constantinople but the people of Ukraine.
Last edited by Nelson Chase; 09/03/09 01:29 AM.
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Trying to keep politicians away from religion in Eastern Europe is self-defeating; it is a truism among scholars that anyone who has just spent an hour talking about politics in Eastern Europe has just spent sixty minutes discussing religion. One might just as well try to convince the Russians that Orthodoxy has nothing to do with the Russian identity, or try to convince the Greeks that Orthodoxy has nothing to do with the Greek identity - or, for that matter, try to convince the Irish that we should all become High-Church Anglicans.
But this does not add up to an absolute requirement that Ukraine must have a State Church. That is a different matter. To speak to a suggestion posted above, there is no reason at all for the Ukrainian government to attempt to force people into a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, nor would such an attempt succeed. Within the context of a general settlement of the jurisdictional problems of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, it would not be difficult to devise a suitable status for people who live in Ukraine but who are specifically Russian Orthodox. There is precedent available to guide our thinking on the matter.
Fr. Serge
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