Istanbul, Turkey, Jan 7, 2019 / 08:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Saturday signed a tomos of autocephaly for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formally recognizing the Church’s independence.
The tomos was signed Jan. 5 at St. George’s Cathedral in Istanbul, after Bartholomew I concelebrated a Divine Liturgy with Epiphanius I, Metropolitan of Kyiv and primate of the newly-created Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Among those present at the signing were Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and several other Ukrainian government officials.
The tomos, or decree, has been delivered to Kyiv, where Epiphanius put it on public display following a Divine Liturgy celebrated Jan. 7 at St. Sophia’s Cathedral.
Bartholomew’s formal conferral of autocephaly is the culmination of a process that began amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, and gained momentum after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Russian backing of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The Ecumenical Patriarch’s intention to create a single, autocephalous Church in Ukraine is motivated by a desire to unify the country’s 30 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, who were until recently split among three Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, and two Churches which had claimed autocephaly, but were not recognized by other Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
Autocephaly for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been a fiercely contested subject between the Patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople, with the Russian Orthodox Church seeing the move as an infringement of its jurisdiction and authority.
Bartholomew had announced Sept. 7 he was sending two envoys to meets with civil and ecclesial leaders in Kyiv to prepare for Ukrainian autocephaly. In response, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow said later that month he would remove Bartholomew’s names from the diptychs, and would not concelebrate with him.
The Ecumenical Patriarch declared Oct. 11 he would grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. At the same time, he restored to communion Metropolitan Filaret, head of the UOC-KP, and also revoked the right, granted in 1686, of the Russian Patriarch to consecrate the Metropolitan of Kyiv.
In response, the Russian Orthodox Church broke communion with Bartholomew Oct. 15, calling his recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine “lawless and canonically void.” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chair of external Church relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, said that “the church that acknowledged the schismatics has excluded itself from the canonical field of Orthodoxy.”
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was established Dec. 15 at a “unification council” held by representatives of the UOC-KP and the UAOC. In addition, two bishops of the UOC-MP, Alexander Drabinko and Simeon Shostatsky, participated in the unification council. Soon afterward, they were declared schismatic by the UOC-MP, and their sees vacant. Both have joined the OCU.
Several UOC-MP parishes have also reportedly joined the OCU.
It was at the unification council that Epiphanius, 39, was elected primate of the OCU. He had previously been Metropolitan of Pereyaslavsky and Bila Tserkva in the UOC-KP.
Along with ecclesial leaders, Poroshenko has been a strong backer of Ukrainian autocephaly. At the conclusion of the unification council he said, “We are now creating an independent Ukraine. And this event is as important as the referendum on our independence adopted more than 27 years ago.”
He linked an independent Church to Ukrainian patriotism, and said: “Autocephaly is part of our state pro-European and pro-Ukrainian strategy, which we have been consistently implementing for almost five years. All this is the basis of our own way of development, development of the state of Ukraine and development of our Ukrainian nation.”
Fr. Alexander Laschuk, a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest, canon lawyer, and professor at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, discussed with CNA both the inter-Orthodox and the ecumenical implications of Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly.
For the Orthodox Church in Ukraine “it’s a sign of maturity that the Ecumenical Patriarch, who is first among equals, sees they can be a self-governing Church … that’s a sort of vote-of-confidence for the Church in Ukraine.”
Within Eastern Orthodoxy, Laschuk said, the decision also will play into debates about how autocephaly is granted, given that “the power of the Ecumenical Patriarch is not the power of the Holy Father, so how decision are made is much more complicated at times.”
While Constantinople is the traditional and historical center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Moscow has long exercised considerable influence and power, both because of its size and because of its closeness to Russian civil authorities.
The debate over the granting of autocephaly plays into the relations of Constantinople and Moscow, and their relative importance and power. Both the Russian and Ecumenical Patriarchs have written to the heads of the other Eastern Orthodox Churches, asking them not to recognize, and to recognize, respectively, the OCU’s autocephaly.
The decision for autocephaly, Laschuk said, will also have a tremendous impact on ecumenism.
For example, because of the presence of Eastern Orthodox bishops with whom it is not in communion, the Moscow Patriarchate chose not to participate in the 2007 meeting at Ravenna of the commission for dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
“It will also affect ecumenical dialogue in the sense of ‘who is our bargaining partner’, for Catholics,” Laschuk said. Previously, the Holy See dialogued only with the UOC-MP as “canonical Orthodoxy” in the country, but “clearly that’s changed” with the recognition of the OCU by Constantinople.
The priest added that he thinks the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, “is excited to have a partner with which he can actually dialogue; we won’t have the union of the Churches tomorrow, but if you can’t even talk to each other, it’s hard to get much done … I think His Beatitude is very happy he has someone with whom he can talk, and be in the same room with, which was not the case previously.”
He commented that “entire regions of Ukraine” are becoming increasingly Seventh-Day Adventist or Pentecostal, and that “collaborative activity by the more traditional Churches is a very welcome thing, as opposed to sort of, warring factions.”
Major Archbishop Shevchuk had written to Epiphanius Dec. 20 to congratulate him on his election as primate of the OCU, commenting, “We have all witnessed how the Lord, through the power and deeds of the Holy Spirit, in cooperation with your good will, heals the wounds of church divisions and enmity, giving opportunity to reconcile with our brother in Christ.”
“At this significant moment, I extend my hand on behalf of our Church to you and all the Orthodox brethren, offering you to begin our path to unity, to the truth. Because the future of the Church, our people and the Ukrainian independent European state depends on how we today will cherish unity and overcome what separates us.”
Major Archbishop Shevchuk added that “we are grateful to the Lord who has blessed the participants of this, without exaggeration, an important event that will enter the history of independent Ukraine as a great God’s gift on the way to the complete unity of the Churches of Volodymyr’s Baptism.”
He noted that “the Churches of Volodymyr’s baptism … live in one liturgical heritage, from the depths of beauty and God-inspired wisdom we draw spiritual strength. Even today, we are not in full eucharistic communion, but are called to jointly overcome the obstacles that stand on the path to unity. This historic mission and the foundation of the future patriarchy of the united Kyivan Church were laid by even the glorious church men Peter Mohyla and Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky.”
The words of the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church allude to the 988 baptism of Vladimir the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev, which resulted in the Christianization of Kievan Rus’, a state whose heritage Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus all claim.
The Christianization of Kievan Rus’ forms the roots of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
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Yes, that is the point. It is far less taxing (pun not entirely intended) on the gov’t purse to euthanize people than care for them.
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Socialism is great. So is gov’t funded free medical services. But eventually, the money runs out.
A lot of the money is spent in unneeded testing and unrealistic medical procedures (at least in the states). Then we throw away perfectly healthy beings with a lifetime of potential ahead of them.
We end up where we are today.
The Daily Mail has an article claiming Social Security & Medicare will not be able to pay monthly benefits in full in less than 8 years. It references the AARP. AARP lobbied in the past against healthcare professionals being allowed to have conscience rights in cases of euthanasia. It all fits together.
One of many reasons I never have and never will join AARP.
Nor I, Miss Mary.
AARP offers free supper nights for older people in our area with guest speakers. I’ve tried in vain to point out to other Catholic parishoners what AARP is up to but the free meal’s just too good a draw I guess.
It has been known for well over 30 years (I read about it in high school back in 1986 or so) that Soc Sec and especially Medicare were going to be in trouble. And look, we have nearly arrived at that point.
Precisely the purpose of the “Retro-Gressive” Party.
Then they will all monetize the murder, and call themselves virtuous.
It’s amazing how a few tug at heart stories such as Esther Ransom can hood wink MPs devoid of any notion of Christianity who will pass this bill today! Random and Leadbeater will have a lot to answer for on their particular judgement!! This will, with the abortion rules this week facilitate the turning of England in to a Muslim country
Possibly, since Muslims won’t permit abortion (or infanticide) or euthanasia among their followers.
Just like they don’t allow sodomy, except in Afghanistan with Bacha Bazi (and probably among the rich and privately “protected”). I am sure if there is money on the line, the Muslims will allow all manner of things. They are human, just like Christians, and Christians allow tons of stuff that God would rather us not.
Why is it that so many things that are advertised and marketed to us as “freedom” are then delivered as tyranny? “We just want freedom to end our lives” collapses into “we demand you kill us, or go out of business, or find another profession (the last is what Hilary said about medical providers who do not want to do abortions). We have seen this many, many times before.
The last stages of life offer multigenerational opportunities for increased Faith, Hope, and Love and the actions they inspire. Redefining compassion, Satan and worldly-minded men with a naturally humanist/materialist/fake core have joined together and intend to eliminate every endeavor that accentuates the truth and a divinely created value system. This is an existential struggle. DON’T THINK FOR ONE SECOND THAT IT WILL STOP HERE.
Hospice and care home staff won’t be under a duty to admit doctors who are involved in the procedure for assisted dying – they can exclude them and give them notice that they’re trespassers if they enter.
I’ve read that in some nations, hospices aren’t given much of a choice about that. And truthfully, even our local non-profit hospice that has a member of the Catholic clergy on board aired a film produced by a foundation promoting euthanasia. Euthanasia’s getting more & more embedded in the culture & we’re not paying enough attention.
Michael, are you talking about England (UK) ?
Yes, AARP supports assisted suicide/euthanasia. I believe CARP (Canadian) does too.
The right to die will soon be the duty to die. Already, there is a gentle or not-so-gentle nudge in that direction.