Friday, February 22, 2019

Romanians deliberating Ukraine

(Basilica) - As regards the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine, the Holy Synod stressed the following aspects:
  1. For almost thirty years, the issue of the Ukrainian schism was not solved, nor was any appeal made for a pan-Orthodox mediation, as was the case in the past with the schism in Bulgaria. Noticing this deadlock in resolving the situation, the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted the Tomos of autocephaly to the hierarchs, clergy, and believers who were in schism with the Russian Orthodox Church and the entire Orthodoxy, but this Tomos was accepted only by the Ukrainian Orthodox people who were not in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. Therefore, the problem of Ukrainian ecclesiastical unity is not fully resolved at present, also because in Ukraine there is a large Russian population having a direct relation to the Moscow Patriarchate.
  2. Regarding this tense ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church reiterates its stance expressed during its previous working sessions of 24 May and 25 October 2018. It was then recommended that, through dialogue, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate identify a solution to this ecclesiastical dispute by preserving the unity of faith, by respecting the administrative and pastoral freedom of the clergy and faithful in this country (including the right to autocephaly), and by restoring Eucharistic communion. In the event of an unsuccessful bilateral dialogue, it is necessary to convene a Synaxis of all Primates of Orthodox Churches to solve the existing problem.
  3. For a concrete and correct decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at a forthcoming working session, the Holy Synod will consider with priority that there are 127 Romanian Orthodox parishes in Ukraine, especially in Northern Bukovina, which are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate. A real consultation is needed with these Romanian Orthodox people, who are concerned with preserving their ethnic and linguistic identity. In this sense, it is necessary to obtain written assurances from Ukrainian ecclesiastical and state authorities that the ethnic and linguistic identity of these Romanians will be respected, and that these Romanian Orthodox will have the possibility to organise themselves within a Romanian Orthodox Vicariate and to be able to cultivate spiritual relations with the Romanian Patriarchate, in order to be supported by sending liturgical and theological books in their mother tongue, that is, in the Romanian language. It was noted that a Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate has been operating in Romania since 1990.
  4. In addition, the Romanian Patriarchate will ask the Ecumenical Patriarchate to clarify the problem of the non-canonical hierarchs and priests in the West, who belonged to the former ‘Kiev Patriarchate’.
After completing the above-mentioned consultations, the Holy Synod will express its official position on the situation of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

15 comments:

  1. There are 127 Romanian congregations there? Wow. So America isn't uniquely weird. I certainly hope there are at least two varieties of Romanian. Maybe once the EP patriarchate is established there will be an oddity like the "Palestinian" flavor of EP in California?

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    1. The difference with the situation in the so-called diaspora being those 127 ethnically Romanian congregations are not under the omophor of the Church of Romania, they are under the authority of the local Church, in this case the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate, which was until recently the only canonical Orthodoxy body in Ukraine.

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    2. Still is the only Canonical body

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    3. I believe they glossed over their parishes in southern Bessarabia (Ukraine's Budjak area), which they view as being on the Bucharest Patriarchate's canonical territory given that Bessarabia (Moldova/Budjak) were taken from Romania by the USSR during World War II and the churches there forcibly transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate...

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  2. And did the Romanian church show any pastoral concern for the many Orthodox Ukrainian people who lived in Bukovina when it was part of Romania between the two world wars?

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  3. Pssst... UOC-MP is still the only canonical body in Ukr.

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    1. Psst, not unless you are saying the EP is no longer Orthodox.

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    2. One may hold that the EP's unilateral grant of autocephaly to the Church in Ukraine (not just to the UOC-KP and the UOAC) is uncanonical without jumping to gracelessness.

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    3. Who said they are graceless here? Not I.

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    4. A church that is uncanonical is graceless, as compared to an uncanonical action.

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    5. Only God through his appointed bishops can discern and judge the true consequences of the the EP's actions, neither I nor anybody else besides a bishop can declare whether the EP has grace or not. But, I do know what my bishops have said about the canonical situation in Ukraine, and that is that the UOC-MP is the only canonical church structure in Ukraine.

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    6. Great, bishop v. bishop, and "mine" is always right.

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    7. Sometimes thats how things have to turn out dude. Many times in orthodox history that were very important to the development of church doctrine were just that... bishop v. bishop. We may not like it, but thats how life is in our fallen world.

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