Ukrainian president invites Ecumenical Patriarch to celebration


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.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 21, 2008 at 10:32 AM

    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.

    In 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Byzantine, TXMay 21, 2008 at 10:35 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AndrewMay 21, 2008 at 9:25 PM

    When 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.

    Then 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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Byzantine, TXMay 21, 2008 at 11:42 PM

    Tomoi probably. I can agree there is definitely some sort of political aspect to this.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EP calls different Paschal dates a "scandal"

( Orthodox Times ) - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew extended in his homily his heartfelt wishes to all the non-Orthodox Christians who celebrated the Holy Easter on Sunday, March 31, after presiding over the Sunday Divine Liturgy at the Church of Saint Theodore of the Community of Vlanga. “On this day, the timeless message of the Resurrection resonates more profoundly than ever, as our non-Orthodox Christian brethren and sisters commemorate the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, celebrating Holy Easter. We have already sent our representatives to all the Christian Communities of the confessions here, to extend our heartfelt wishes of the Holy Great Church of Christ and our Patriarchal congratulations. But also from this position we extend a heartfelt greeting of love to all Christians around the world who celebrate Holy Easter today. We beseech the Lord of Glory that the forthcoming Easter celebration next year will not merely be a fortuitous occurrence, but rather the beginning...
Read more

Coptic Church SUSPENDS dialogue with Catholic Church

Image
( OCP ) - Cairo – Egypt: The plenary session of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church was held on March 07.2024, at the Logos Center at the Papal Residence in the Monastery of Saint Anba Bishoy in Wadi Natroun, headed by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, and attended by 110 of its 133 members. His Holiness the Pope delivered a speech at the opening of the session, in which he spoke about the importance of fruit in the life and service of the shepherd through “the parable of the unfruitful fig tree” (Luke 13:6-9). The main committees of the Holy Synod held their annual meetings starting last Monday and for three days, at the papal headquarters in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Abbasiya, to discuss the reports submitted to them by their subcommittees.  It issued its recommendations, which were presented to the members of the Academy in today’s plenary session for approval. The Church announced its opinion on the issue of “homosexuality” through a statement issued by the Holy Synod (to b...
Read more

"Those people in the back" - a quandary

Image
"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
Read more