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Constantinople (VOA) — Ukraine's president has met the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, as some Ukrainian clerics prepare to break ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew I spoke in Istanbul on Saturday, weeks after the patriarchate's October 11 decision to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Russia in turn broke off ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate.
Poroshenko thanked the patriarch, who is the “first among equals” in the Orthodox world, for supporting the Ukrainian church's independence.
The Ukrainian church had been under the Russian Orthodox Church since 1686. Ukrainian clerics are now being forced to pick sides, to join the independent Ukraine Orthodox church or remain within Russian influence, as the fighting persists in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed rebels.
And also...
(UOC-USA) - President Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the Agreement "On Cooperation and Interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople". This agreement on cooperation was signed in the presence of the diplomatic delegation of the Government of Ukraine and the representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople: Metropolitan Emmanuel of France and the Exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine – His Eminence Archbishop Daniel (UOC of the USA) and His Grace Bishop Ilarion (UOC of Canada).
The Head of State stressed that this day is historic for the creation of an independent Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, as today the agreement was signed on the establishment of an independent Ukrainian Church.
"The Agreement we signed today provides all the conditions for the process of preparing for the Council, the process of giving the Tomos to be brought to a strict conformity with the canons of the Orthodox Church. I congratulate you all on signing this Agreement. I want to emphasize that November 3 is a historic day for the creation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church," Petro Poroshenko said.
"Today is a historic day. The historic day, which was initiated from the first days of the restoration of Ukraine's independence, when Ukrainians sought and prayed for the Lord to send them an independent autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church," the President added.
"I urge Ukrainians to pray for peace, for the unity of the Ukrainian Church. To pray that the Lord will not allow provocations strived by our enemies, will not allow bloodshed. We will do our utmost to complete the procedure of giving the Tomos to the Ukrainian Church by His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew as soon as possible," the Head of State said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew emphasized that today is an important historical moment for bilateral ties and for the Orthodoxy as a whole.
"We have just signed the Cooperation Agreement between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Ukraine. This Treaty will help accelerate the provision of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine," Patriarch Bartholomew said.
His All-Holiness emphasized: "This right to have an autocephalous Church and this desire, which you have cherished for many years, come true these days".
"Just as other nations of the Balkans, who received autocephaly from the Mother Church, had this right. This is an exclusive right of the Mother Church to provide autocephaly when it deems it expedient, when all conditions are ready for this process," the Ecumenical Patriarch especially emphasized.
Patriarch Bartholomew thanked President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian delegation for the visit.
He also thanked for the decision to transfer the St Andrew's Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the permanent representation of the Mother Church in the capital of Ukraine.
"I pray to the Lord that in the near future I will visit your beautiful and hospitable country once again," His All-Holiness noted.
The Ecumenical Patriarch also conveyed blessings to the Ukrainian people through the President of Ukraine as the elected representative of the Ukrainian people.
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Isn't it wonderful when the Church does the bidding of a government? When will we ever learn. Lord have mercy!
ReplyDeleteIn 325 AD the government mandated the First Ecuminical Council.
DeleteIs there something new here?
Unwad ourselves as The Bride breaths in AND out.
The EP simultaneously claims that they must back the schismatics in Ukraine because the canonical church is too close to the Russian Government, while simultaneously, explicitly setting up a state church. Shameless
ReplyDeleteIt is important to keep in mind that in fact the ecumenical patriarchate does have the traditional responsibility for declaring autocephaly of a given Local Church, as this declaration functions as a promise in expectation of an ecumenical Council which alone has the right to register and establish on canonical grounds any autocephalous church. As we all know, however, this current declaration (still incomplete) is politically motivated and seriously compromised by the restoration of schismatics to canonical status without reference to the church from which they come, namely the autocepalous Church of Russia. So far, many leaders of Local Churches have called for a pan-Orthodox Council; i.e., Antioch, Serbia, and more. May this debacle resolve for God’s glory!
ReplyDelete" ecumenical patriarchate does have the traditional responsibility for declaring autocephaly of a given Local Church, as this declaration functions as a promise in expectation of an ecumenical Council which alone has the right to register and establish on canonical grounds any autocephalous church"
DeleteIf this is taken to its logical conclusion, then the churches of Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Greece, Romania, Poland, Albania, Georgia, and the Czech and Slovak lands all have only a provisional autocephaly, and the EP therefore also has the right to withdraw autocephaly from these churches. So in fact there are only five truly autocephalous churches and everyone else is under some kind of probation, and the EP is not really interfering with another autocephalous church but just a pseudo-autocephaly that can be revoked if the MP persists in being naughty.