UPTs DELEGATION DISCUSSES QUESTION OF OVERCOMING UKRAINIAN SCHISM WITH CONSTANTINOPLE PATRIARCHATE
Religiia v Ukraine, 25 June 2018
On 23 June 2018, permanent members of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan of Odessa and Ismail Agafangel; Metropolitan of Donetsk and Mariupol Ilarion; Metropolitan of Kamenets-Podolsk and Gorodok Feodor; and the chancellor of the UPTs, Metropolitan of Borispol and Brovary Antony, met with Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew in his residence in Istanbul (Constantinople). The purpose of the meeting was a discussion of the question of overcoming the division of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, Religiia v Ukraine reports, citing the website of the UPTs.
Also participating in the meeting were the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the UPTsMP, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, and a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Vadim Novinsky.
From the side of the Constantinople Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Pergamon John; Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel; Metropolitan of Smyrna Bartholomew; Grand Archimandrite Vissarion Komzias, the archivist of the ecumenical patriarchate; and Archimandrite Ambrosios Chorozidis, the Grand Syncellus, were present during the meeting.
The members of the synod of the UPTsMP arrived in Constantinople with the goal of receiving reliable information from Patriarch Bartholomew regarding the initiative of a possible grant of a tomos concerning autocephaly and also with the goal of delivering the position of the UPTsMP on this issue. The vladykas also described for the patriarch the current situation in the church life of Ukraine.
In the name of the head of the UPTsMP, Metropolitan Onufrey, the Ukrainian vladykas delivered to Patriarch Bartholomew an invitation to send his representative to Kiev for the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the baptism of Kievan Rus, in which representatives of all local Orthodox churches, by tradition, will participate.
As the website of the UPTsMP points out, the discussion took place in an open, frank, constructive, and fraternal atmosphere. During their stay on the Phanar, the Ukrainian church delegation also visited the patriarchal cathedral of St. George the Conqueror.
After the conclusion of the meeting, its participants gave commentaries for the Ukrainian news media.
The UPTsMP website quotes Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel:
"Today, under the leadership of His Holiness Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, we had the pleasure of meeting, cooperating, and speaking with the delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in our patriarchate on the Phanar.
"This was a very useful and constructive conversation, during which we exchanged opinions regarding the Ukrainian church question about which everybody is so worried. The ecumenical patriarchate has never ceased to be and it continues to be interested in the matter of resolving the church problem, which exists in Ukraine, for the establishment of peace, reconciliation, and cooperation of all groups in the state for its welfare.
"We are certain that we all together can cooperate and make a common contribution to the welfare of Ukraine and to the resolution of this matter. And today's conversation was a blessed moment for us, and we believe that in this communication and continuing dialogue we will achieve our common goal for the welfare of the whole Orthodox Church."
The UPTsMP website also published comments for the news media by Metropolitan of Borispol and Brovary Antony:
"The goal of the meeting was to deliver objective information about those problems that exist in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and also to hear from the patriarch himself about what news media are talking about actively, namely the supposed desire of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew to grant a tomos concerning autocephaly in the near future.
"The meeting was long and frank; each person stated his view of the situation in Ukraine, and not only there, because schisms exist not only in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church but also in many local Orthodox churches, and we should seek paths that will help to heal these schisms.
"Several times people spoke about the impossibility of legalization of schism and the need to deal with the question of its healing. Figuratively speaking, sometimes medicines will not help and now we are searching for what will help to unite our brothers who have been behind the church fence for a long time. We see that the patriarch of Constantinople, that is, the church from which we received baptism, wants to help in this matter.
"His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew said that he does not wish to interfere in the situation, but he also wants to help, as the person who is responsible and the first hierarch among equals in the whole Orthodox world, to resolve this very difficult question. We see that such openness is built on the fact that we will seek the resolution on the basis of our canonical rules and that, unlike what our news media and some highly placed persons say, the issue has not already been decided. Nobody yet knows how the issue can be resolved, since it is rather complex, but we should do everything we can so that our brothers and compatriots, who are in schism, will return to the bosom of the Orthodox Church."
The vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the UPTsMP, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, posted a commentary on his Facebook page, in which he particularly noted:
"We delivered our position and we were heard. They laid out their vision. And it is normal. It was good that from both sides there was an expression of joy and pleasure with the very fact of such communication. We should discuss all church questions directly, without intermediaries and without the interference of external forces. The chief criterion should be the benefit for the church. And in these matters we have mutual understanding with Constantinople. Constantinople wants to help resolve the problem and not to interfere and exploit the situation to its own benefit. We are satisfied with the visit and the discussion."
He also quoted the "good commentaries on this topic by Vladyka Antony and Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel in an interview on channel 112."
It should be noted that on 23 June, in an interview on television channel 112, the chancellor of the UPTsMP, Metropolitan Antony put out the news that Constantinople still has not decided whether to grant a tomos to the Ukrainian church or not.
"The point is that the matter has not already been decided. And it even was said that anybody who says that the issue of the tomos is decided is working against the Constantinople church. These were fairly honest and frank words that we are not talking about some vision of how this matter can be resolved. Nobody knows how this matter can be resolved," the television channel quotes him.
However, this comment is not included in the official report of the UPTsMP, so these words are not included in the comments of Father Nikolai Danilevich.
In his turn, the spokesman for the UPTs of the Kiev patriarchate, Archbishop Evstraty, called attention "to the one clear detail which can be plainly seen: in relaying the words of Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel, Father Nikolai Danilevich TWICE passed over the reference to the ecumenical patriarchate as the Mother-Church. Both times Father Nikolai did not translate these words (Mitera Ekklesiia), which were heard; after all, in the Moscow patriarchate in Ukraine, the Russian church is considered to be the Mother-Church and not the Constantinople church. And now there is the question: how can one trust the statements on the part of spokespersons for the Moscow patriarchate in Ukraine that were contained in conversations behind closed doors if we all are witnesses to the fact that when the words were relayed publicly they were not relayed as they were spoken but rather as is convenient from the point of view of the position of the Moscow patriarchate?"
As to such remarks, Father Nikolai Danilevich noted in his comments on his page: "In the translation of the words of Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel, there may be insignificant inaccuracies that do not affect the general meaning. I translated. There already is a video somewhere on Youtube. I ask you to forgive me because I was tired after lengthy (several hours) discussion and translation during the conversations. . . . But this does not change the sense. Indeed, for us Constantinople is the Mother-Church, or perhaps the Grandmother-Church; we acknowledge that. So what?"
On the eve of these events, on 20 June, the Russian news agency TASS published a peculiar commentary by Father Nikolai Danilevich regarding the intervention of Constantinople in the Ukrainian question:
"Now even the most rabid nationalists have quieted down; they are not seizing our churches for now. They promised to seize the Kiev caves lavra and other shrines, but now they are waiting, because they understand that their radical actions may be turned against them when they are hoping that representatives of world Orthodoxy will recognize them. This fact, incidentally, confirms that the seizures of churches that occurred were 'manufactured' and not spontaneous. . . . Orthodoxy in Ukraine is experiencing one of the most difficult periods and this is more politics than religion. Earlier there also was a lot of politics, but now it is not simply politics but geopolitics. They want to make the topic of granting autocephaly yet another instrument of struggle against Russia and they are supporting religious organizations that have a clearly anti-Russian direction. There is reason to suppose that this process includes not only Ukrainian politics but also other strong world states."
The page "Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church" on Facebook, which unites proponents of Ukrainian autocephaly, gives its own commentary regarding the statements of several members of the UPTsMP delegation, with a translation of the account about the meeting from the Constantinople church itself:
"Despite the loud declarations by representatives of the UPTsMP and deputy Novinsky about the results of the visit to the Phanar, experts call attention to the fact that the release clearly speaks about a resolution and consideration of the interests of the whole Ukrainian nation. And this clearly indicates that the UPTsMP and Novinsky are deliberately manipulating information and interpreting in their own way what was said at the Phanar.
We give a translation of the Phanar's own press release that was posted after the meeting with the delegation of the UPTsMP.
Bulletin of the Press Service of the ecumenical patriarch:
A delegation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate visited the ecumenical patriarch.
On 23 June of this year, a delegation of the UPTsMP visited in the residence of the ecumenical patriarch on the Phanar. The meeting was held at the request of the Ukrainian side. The delegation of the UPTsMP consisted of Meetropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Agafangel, Metropolitan of Kamenets-Podolsk and Gorodok Feodor, Metropolitan of Luhansk and Alchev Mitrofan, Metropolitan of Borispol and Brovary Antony, and Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich and Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Vadim Novinsky.
Members of the UPTsMP delegation were received by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the cathedral of St. George. The patriarch presided at the conversations. In addition to him the meeting included also Metropolitan of Pergamon John, Metropolitan of Gaul Emmanuel, and Metropolitan of Smyrna Bartholomew. During the conversations, the existing situation in Ukrainian Orthodoxy was discussed, and there also was an exchange of opinions about the desire of the Mother-Church to restore the unity of Orthodox believers in Ukraine and about the prospects for granting the status of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
At the end of the day, both delegations were taken to a joint meal in the patriarchal dining room, after which the conversations continued.
In his statement for Ukrainian news media, Metropolitan Emmanuel noted: "Today, under the presidency of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, we worked with pleasure with a Ukrainian delegation here within the walls of the Mother-Church in Constantinople. This was a very useful and constructive cooperation during which we exchanged opinions on the Ukrainian question affecting all who live in Ukraine.
"The ecumenical patriarch, like the Mother-Church also, has never ceased being interested, and now it is yet more interested in the resolution of problems that exist in Ukraine, in particular in the establishment of peace in the country and also the reconciliation of all parishes and their cooperation for the welfare of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. We are convinced that we all can help in this critical moment for the Ukrainian nation. Therefore today's meeting was really a blessed moment and we hope for fruitful joint activity and future cooperation and continual dialogue with all brothers representing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."
Considering the imprecision and contradictions of comments that are heard from participants of the Constantinople meeting, it is not clear what they agreed to—or agreed at all. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 June 2018)
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