ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH GREETS UKRAINIANS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY AND UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR END OF DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN CHURCH
Religiia v Ukraine, 27 August 2018
On 24 August 2018, on Ukrainian Independence Day, a number of holiday events were conducted with the participation of the leadership of the state and church, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to President.gov.ua and 5.ua.
In the morning, in a prayer service for Ukraine, which was attended by the president with his family, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the secretary of the Council of National Security and Defense, and the government, speeches and prayers were delivered by representatives of the main confessions of the country: primates of the UPTsKP, UPTsMP, UGKTs, UAPTs; the ordinary of the diocese of Kiev and Zhitomir of the Roman Catholic Church, Vitaly Krivitsky; the chief rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine, Yakov Dov Braikh; and the chairman of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Valery Antoniuk.
All of them together asked for peace and God's blessing for Ukraine.
Later, during his participation in a parade for Ukrainian Independence Day, President Petro Poroshenko again stressed the importance for the country of receiving a tomos concerning the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
"There cannot be a free body when the soul is in captivity. May both Constantinople, and Moscow, and the Vatican hear us today. We firmly intend to sever the last bond by which the empire desperately tries to tie us to itself. We are filled with determination to put an end to the unnatural and uncanonical retention of a substantial portion of our Orthodox community in dependence upon the Russian church—a church that consecrates the hybrid war of Putin against Ukraine and which day and night prays for the Russian government and for troops that are also Russian," the head of state emphasized.
As is known, Constantinople does not recognize the appropriation by Moscow of the Kiev metropolinate and it continually recalls this.
The president also recalled that baptism came to Ukraine from the Constantinople Mother-Church and it was from Kiev that the broad expanses of eastern Europe spread. "Ukrainian Christianity has a history of more than 1,000 years and its own theological, liturgical, and ecclesiastical tradition. Now, when we have restored and defended the governmental independence of Ukraine with its capital in Kiev, there are no reasons that the local Orthodox church of Ukraine should not be equal among the other local Orthodox churches," the head of state emphasized.
He said that the question of a tomos concerning autocephaly for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine goes beyond the framework of religion. "It deals with the strengthening of the army, the defense of the language, and the struggle for membership in the European Union and NATO. It is yet another strategic reference point on our historical path. It is an important component of our independence," the president summed up.
Petro Poroshenko also conducted a telephone conversation with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The patriarch congratulated Ukrainians on Ukrainian Independence Day. "Warm greetings to all Ukrainians who are embraced by the love of the Constantinople Mother-Church," he said.
The Ukrainian president thanked the ecumenical patriarch and described the morning prayers for Ukraine. The interlocutors discussed further action on the path to the creation of a united local Orthodox church of Ukraine. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 August 2018)
MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE SEES IN POROSHENKO'S CALL TO DO AWAY WITH "RUSSIAN CHURCH" IN UKRAINE ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN POWER
Interfax-Religiia, 24 August 2018
The Moscow patriarchate regards the words of the Ukrainian president about the intention to do away with the "Russian church" in the country as a desperate attempt by Petro Poroshenko to maintain his power.
"A united metropolia and then an independent, autocephalous church of all-Rus will unify all peoples who have traced their lineage from the Dnepr baptismal font of St. Vladimir for 1030 years now. In that time, many secular rulers have been changed, sometimes making war, sometimes uniting with one another, sometimes devising the most diverse political projects; empires rose and fell, borders were drawn in different ways, relations with neighbors were uneven. . . . But the church stood united, it stands now, and it will stand. It is forever," Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the deputy head of the synod's Department for External Church Relations, told an Interfax-Religiia correspondent.
"And it is strange to hear how, in a truly desperate attempt to maintain his waning power, an arrogant politician, who does not have the support of even one tenth of the people, is trying to devise for it, for the church, his own new structure and his own new unheard-of 'canons,' and to show it what is natural for it and what isn't," the news agency's interlocutor noted.
Earlier on Friday [24 Aug.], P. Poroshenko spoke at a military parade in Kiev about the necessity of ending the existence in the country of a church that, in his words, "consecrates a hybrid war" by the RF against Ukraine. "May both Constantinople, and Moscow, and the Vatican hear us: we firmly intend to sever the last bond by which the empire desperately tries to tie us to itself," P. Poroshenko said.
Meanwhile, in the opinion of the representative of the Russian church, the words of the Ukrainian president do not find understanding among those to whom they are addressed.
"Evidently the author of this unfortunate statement still imagines that it is not likely to be received with understanding beyond the narrow circle of his personal entourage and thus it is necessary to call to Constantinople, Moscow, and for some reason even the Vatican, in the context of a military parade. Maybe the louder it sounds, the more convincing it is? 'May they hear,'" Father Nikolai said.
"And also about the Vatican: is it mentioned only inappropriately? Or do they want to suggest to somebody else: if you delay, we have an alternative?" the news agency's source added.
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