More on unity efforts in Ukraine

(RISU) - Today the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), Metropolitan Mefodii (Kudriakov), addressed the Standing Conference of the Orthodox Bishops Outside Ukraine with a statement and request to “include the Ukrainian question in the agenda of the Special Synod of Eastern Patriarchates.” On April 23, 2011, the patriarchate of the UAOC sent a similar address to the Standing Conference of Heads of the Ancient Patriarchates, reports religion.in.ua.

According to the address, one of the painful issues of modern Orthodoxy “is the problem of church division in Ukraine.” “There are about five and a half thousand Orthodox communities in Ukraine that are not part of the Moscow Patriarchate but that have not broken their organic unity with the Ecumenical Orthodoxy and sincerely aspire to come out of the canonical crises through establishing communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the national Orthodox Churches.”

The UAOC welcomed the coming Synod of Heads of the Ancient Patriarchates and expressed hope that the future similar pan-Orthodox gatherings “will pay attention to the Ukrainian Church issue and will outline the canonical model and specific mechanisms of renewing the Eucharist communion.”

In his address to the Standing Conference of the Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Outside Ukraine, Metropolitan Mefodii asked them “as Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops canonically recognized by the Ecumenical Orthodoxy to ensure that the above-mentioned synod consider the Ukrainian church the question, which is important for millions of Orthodox faithful.”

The address says that in the struggle for the status of the Ukrainian Church, the UAOC made also its “own mistakes” but is ready “to review its positions and correct canonical mistakes.”

In particular, the statement reminds about the decision of the bishops of the UAOC from August 26, 2009, about the readiness “to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate with autonomy” and about the resumption of the mention in prayer of the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the services.

According to the head of UAOC, no church jurisdiction in Ukraine, including the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate, is “able to heal the painful wound of the church division today independently, without the assistance of the ecumenical Orthodoxy.”

The address says that unification of the Orthodox of Ukraine “cannot be based on either schismatic ideology preached by some hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate or the ideology of the ‘Russian World,’ proposed by Russian Church leaders.”

According to the UAOC, the healing of the tragic divide is possible only with the participation of the canonical institution of the Council of the Heads of the Ancient Patriarchates.