UAOC asking to come under Constantinople

Some background from the AP for context:

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.

KYIV (RISU) - On August 26, 2009, took place the Hierarchal Synod of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) under the leadership of the head of the UAOC Metropolitan Mefodiy (Kudryakov) along with ten hierarchs of the church. The subject of the synod was the church-confessional situation in Ukraine, which formed after the visit of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus. The hierarchs composed an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and discussed the future paths of the development of the UAOC. RISU's Ukrainian-language webpage posted this story on August 27, 2009.

The appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarchate states that the church division in Ukraine occurred as a “result of the crisis of the church consciousness, which departed from the ideal of Christian Universalism.”

The episcopate of the UAOC asks the Ecumenical Patriarch “not just to pray for the recovery of the division in Ukraine, but also to give us medication which can heal the wounds on the body of the Ukrainian Church.” As the text of the appeal attests, from such “medication” they can receive two things; first of all, the beneficial influence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the formation of a new, more universal, church consciousness in Ukraine and secondly, Patriarch Bartholomew’s blessing for the UAOC to come under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with rights of autonomy.

“We call the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” write the hierarchs of the UAOC, “to develop and realize a complete theological-church program, which aims is to consolidate church consciousness in Ukraine. In our opinion, to improve the health of the church consciousness the following are extremely urgent:

• the involvement of leading theologians of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in solving the Ukrainian Church problem;
• the collaboration of theologians of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with leading humanitarian and theological schools in Ukraine;
• the introduction of publishing program which would have the goal of familiarizing Ukrainian Orthodox Christians with the achievements of the theological thought of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, especially, in the fields of ecclesiology, canonical law, and history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate;
• the participation of representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in educational events in Ukraine and a deeper involvement of leading representatives of Orthodox academic work of Ukraine in education and other events that are directed by the initiation or assistance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate;
• the opening in Kyiv of a branch or informational-cultural center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

On the other hand, the episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church once more witnesses in front of the face of the Mother of the Church, which for the sake of departing from artificial canonical isolation and renewing communion with the ecumenical Orthodoxy, our church is ready and strives to come under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with rights of autonomy.”

And also...

CONSTANTINOPLE (RISU) - The letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) will be reviewed at the session of the Holy Synod in Constantinople on September 28, 2009. UNIAN-Religion reported that General Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archimandrite Elpidophoros Lambriniadis informed the publication “Kommersant-Ukraina” of this.

After the session of the Holy Synod, a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will come to Ukraine for further review. “No decision will be made fast or spontaneously. We are planning the visit of the Patriarchate’s delegation to Ukraine for the beginning of October. During the visit there will be a meeting between representatives of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan Mefodiy (head of the UAOC), where the given question will be discussed, after which we will make a definitive decision,” said the archimandrite.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) skeptically regards the perspective of the UAOC coming under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. “The UAOC has practically no chances – during Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Kyiv he clearly made it understood that he will only converse with a canonical Church, thus with us,” the press secretary of the head of t he UOC-MP proto-hierarch Heorhij Kovalenko is quoted by “Kommersant.”

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) responds the same way to the letter of Metropolitan Mefodiy. "We really doubt that Patriarch Bartholomew will accept the UAOC under his omophorion, the more so since it is a small Orthodox jurisdiction,” said the head of the informational-publication department of the UOC-KP Bishop Yevstratiy (Zorya). He believes that the UAOC’s appeal to Constantinople was influenced by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s visit to Ukraine. “After Kirill’s visit to Ukraine, the UAOC understood that Moscow will not support the creation of a national church in Ukraine, so they again focused their attention on Constantinople,” feels Bishop Yevstratij.

As RISU reported, on August 26, 2009, the Hierarchal Synod of the UAOC sent an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to accept the UAOC into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with rights of autonomy.