The Kiev Metropolis besieged Poroshenko, but confused the parishioners
The Department for External Church Relations of the UOC (MP), with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, issued a Statement “Concerning the appeal of the President of Ukraine to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew regarding the “granting of the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
The DECR of the UOC (MP) first of all draws attention to the following: “According to Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Church is separated from the state, and therefore the Church resolves issues of church life independently.”
“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as having a canonical connection with Ecumenical Orthodoxy, did not appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and did not authorize either the President or the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to do so,” the Statement emphasizes. “In this regard, the mentioned initiatives constitute an abuse of power, as well as interference in church affairs.”
The DECR of the UOC (MP) explains to Poroshenko and Ukrainian legislators that “the issue of granting church autocephaly falls within the competence of canon law, and not within the competence of state laws. Autocephaly is granted to the Church, not the state, and therefore it is the Church, not the state, that should initiate or ask for this status.”
The Church expresses concern that “the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is considered as a matter not only of religion, but also of geopolitics” and “considers it unacceptable for autocephaly to be considered from a geopolitical angle.”
The authors of the Statement draw attention to the fact that “the authorities are asking to provide the Tomos of Autocephaly to a single church structure that does not yet exist” and express suspicion that “in fact, under the pretext of creating a unified Church today, another attempt to legitimize church schism is being hidden.”
The hierarchy of the UOC (MP) informs Poroshenko that “it has constant contacts with the hierarchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Based on the experience of such communication, we have no reason to assume that the Ecumenical Patriarchate can take actions that would interfere with the unity of the Church both at the local and universal levels.”
“Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has repeatedly and publicly called His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine the only canonical head of Ukrainian Orthodoxy,” we read in the statement. “Today, people unrelated to the Church are trying to convince us that the same Patriarch Bartholomew can grant autocephaly without even asking the canonical head of Ukrainian Orthodoxy about it.”
“In addition, the Patriarchate of Constantinople itself, like all other Local Orthodox Churches, does not consider the UOC-KP and UAOC to be full-fledged Churches, as evidenced by the non-recognition of the validity of the priesthood of these two structures,” the authors of the Statement believe. – The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the Church that has existed and operated on our lands since the Baptism of Kievan Rus in 988. “UOC-KP” and “UAOC” are only parts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which relatively recently departed from unity with the Church.”
“We call on believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to maintain the unity of the Church, to be calm, not to succumb to informational provocations, to remain in prayer and not to forget that the fate of the Church is entirely in the hands of God,” the authors of the UOC-MP statement conclude.
The editorial staff of PolitNavigator had only a few questions regarding this, in general, a worthy response to the Kyiv regime:
1. Is “the Ukrainian Orthodox Church really the Church that has existed and operated on our lands since the Baptism of Kievan Rus in 988”? Or the UOC (MP) is still only a part of that Church (namely the metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church) that has existed since the Baptism of Rus (and not Kievan Rus, which never existed).
2. Are “UOC-KP” and “UAOC” really parts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” which itself is part of the Moscow Patriarchate and, accordingly, the Church of Christ?
3. And finally, what is “Ukrainian Orthodoxy” if not an oxymoron? After all, Ukrainians were created for the destruction of Orthodoxy.
It is clear that these revelations are not at the time in the official document of the Church. But couldn't it have simply been omitted that caused embarrassment among one's own parishioners?
English version :: Read in English The Kiev Metropolis besieged Poroshenko, but confused the parishioners