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Kiev, May 21, Interfax - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has invited Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to join the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of baptizing Russia.
Yushchenko handed an invitation for the Patriarch to a delegation of the Constantinople Patriarchate in Kiev on Tuesday, the presidential press service has reported.
The Ukrainian president expressed gratitude for the efforts the Constantinople Patriarchate has been making to consolidate Orthodox Churches. "We fully support your efforts in the Christian world," the president said.
"The Ukrainian believers community and the state are convinced that we must advance towards Church accord, towards rapprochement with the Mother Church of the Constantinople Patriarchate," Yushchenko said, noting that, "Ukraine has been moving along this way." To me these are important statements I had not expected to hear.
The delegates conveyed gratitude for the opportunity to explore, while in Ukraine, Orthodox Churches' expectations and wishes regarding their consolidation, saying that this process is effective when all parties are prepared to contribute to it.
They also "spoke about the Ukrainian president's efforts as an official who has been assisting this process without attaching political strings to it".
Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed concerns on many occasions about the Constantinople Patriarchate's intervention in Church affairs in Ukraine, covered by the Russian Orthodox Church's canonical jurisdiction. Concerns is a polite way of putting it. More to the point they keep telling him he's not the "Orthodox pope," that his position needs to be understood "correctly" in light of the large sphere of influence enjoyed by the Russian Church, and that he needs to stop talking as he has been with the Catholics.
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I work with a guy who was raised in western Ukraine, Greek Catholic. He told me that there was tension between the Russian Orthodox (primarily in the east) and the Ukrainian Orthodox (primarily in the center). He said that there was a lot of frustration with Moscow's power in Ukrainian lands. Among the more nationalistic Ukrainians, there's a movement to fold all the Ukrainian churches (maybe including the Greek Catholics? I can't remember) into a single, autonomous Ukrainian Church.
ReplyDeleteIn light of that, the President's remarks make me think that it's just a snubbing of Moscow and promotion of a unified Ukrainian Church.
I was thinking similarly. And yes there has been discussion of that sort. Specifically, the UGCC patriarch has mentioned that possibility many times, but with little feedback.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read stuff like this, I can't help but think all of this is posturing on the part of the MP. I think of the situation in Estonia and even in Moldova and always the MP is the protagonist.
ReplyDeleteThen I read the justifications and explanations, canons and tomos's (tomae?) and I'm not so sure. The Russians have a pretty solid case most of the time.
Tomoi probably. I can agree there is definitely some sort of political aspect to this.
ReplyDelete