Address of the Holy Synod to the Faithful Children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Reverend Fathers, beloved in Christ brothers and sisters!

The split of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy is a pain of the entire Orthodox Church. Our brothers and sisters of the same blood and faith found themselves out of the salutary fold of our Church. A certain part of these people seceded quite consciously into the schism, having egotistically separated themselves from the Mother-Church due to the faults of their spiritual life: pride, ambition, misunderstood patriotism etc. However, we know that many orthodox faithful, remaining now in schism, have got there not because of their conscious choice, but in view of some or another life circumstances. Many were seduced by the false patriotic rhetoric of the schismatic leaders, others seceded owing to the lack of reliable information or was already born in schism. One thing is clear – the way they follow is not salutary, and those following that way stick more to their delusions. Our purpose and pastoral duty is to point out the faults and to return the seceded inside the church fencing.

These people confess the same orthodox faith, and among them there are many of those trying to get churchified and to become familiar with the true orthodox spirituality. However, staying outside the boundaries of the canonical Orthodox Church and the communion with the World Orthodoxy, the seceded ones cannot obtain the fullness of the church life, granted to man through the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit. The tragic situation emerges when people, striving to the unity with Christ, cannot have a part in it, since the sacraments they receive are devoid of salutary grace. The Mother Church disapproves the sinful state of the seceded, their desire to step back, to split from the plenitude of the catholic Church. At the same time we sympathize sincerely with those who found themselves beyond the church communion and pray for their return to the salutary unity with the Universal Orthodoxy in the fold of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Being guided by the commandment of the Savior “That they all may be one” (John. 17: 21), and responding to the request of the non-canonical church communities, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox UOC-KP representatives1. On October 2, this year, the working group met with the representatives of this non-canonical church group.

These initiatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are of the pastoral nature. Establishment of our working group is caused by awareness of the necessity to overcome the church schisms in Ukraine. The Synod of our Church stated its readiness for the constructive dialogue to the UOC-KP leaders, responding their Address of 14.12.2007. The actions of the UOC hierarchs were approved by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, which took place in Moscow, presided over by the late Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II, on June 24-29, 2008:

“paragraph 25. The Holy Council, appreciating the sacrificial ministry of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine, as well as of the episcopate and clergy bearing their obedience under difficult conditions of religious and political instability in Ukraine, with gratitude to God states the fact of the steadfast growth and development of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, uniting in Jesus Christ the orthodox people irrespective of their political and ideological moods and views.

paragraph 26. The Council extends the pastoral gratitude to the faithful children of our Church in Ukraine, preserving the unity of spirit in the union of peace and love. The Council approves of the activity of the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding the search of canonical ways of renewal of the ecclesial peace and unity of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

paragraph 27. The Council says to our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, staying outside of the Orthodox Church fencing: it is with sorrow that the Mother Church patiently waits for all those who left her salutary fold. There is no sin that the Lord would not forgive, there is no guilt that the Church would cover by its mother’s love.. 2.

The idea of renewal of the unity of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine permeated through all the speeches and sermons of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the time of his recent visit to Ukraine:

«…as the Patriarch of Ukraine as well I will do all my best so that the people reunite, that the political and national contradictions disappear, that the unified Church of Christ, the Church Martyress and Confessor, who had been faithful to Christ even until death and had shared the destiny of her people, regained the power and the possibility to embrace all her faithful children with motherly embracement… My word, full of love, is addressed today not only to you, residents of Donbass, but also to those brothers and sisters who are in division. We will pray for you even if you do not want this prayer, on our knees we will ask God that he sent down His mercy to Ukraine, so that he reunited the Church, reunited the people, so that we could say altogether: “And unite us all to one another who become partakers of the one Bread and the Cup in the communion of the one Holy Spirit”»3.

Concerning the church schism in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill emphasized that he fully shared the anxiety over the split, existing between the orthodox faithful in Ukraine. The given split, on the one hand, is an aching wound on the body of the Church, and on the other hand it has a negative effect on the state of the Ukrainian society, provoking instability and bringing about conflict situations in it. “I’d like to note that determining the means for overcoming split is first of all in the competence of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We are positive about the fact that the unity of the Orthodoxy in Ukraine was restored by means of the dialogue between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the communities that have separated from it, on the condition that this dialogue will be based on the principles of recognition of inviolability of the canonical rules of the church organization”4.

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Showing readiness to begin constructive dialogue with the non-canonical church structures, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the same time retains its principled position as for the historical fact of the schism and its initiators. Our stance was and remains unchangeable: we think that from the point of view of the Orthodox ecclesiology and the canon law the only admissible model of restoration of the church unity is reunification of all the orthodox Christians in the fold of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, i.e. the return of the seceded to the place they have stepped back from.

We also have the same view of the ways of reunification for those who had seceded from the church fullness. The way of restoration of the unity lies through penance, i.e. through the graceful change of mind and of the ways of living of the seceded. The penance to which the Holy Church calls is not a humiliating procedure of imploring forgiveness as someone might imagine. The penance of the laity is recognizing before God of one’s own imperfection, which was the reason of one’s falling away from God and His Church. The penance of the schism leaders is recognition before the whole Church, and in the first place before own faithful of one’s own fault, which made them «the blind leading the blind» (Matthew 15: 14).

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is ready to forgive the wounds inflicted by those who seceded from it. But, full-heartedly wishing the return of our brothers and sisters, who, as we believe, stay temporary in schism, we do not have a right to depart from the canonical tradition of the Orthodox Church. The Church is ready to extend mercy and testify the Gospel love of those who did this sin. But we cannot accept the sin as such, and the schism in particular. In order to liquidate the sin, the diplomatic efforts and meetings are not enough. The sin is healed through penance only, and we hope sincerely that our brothers and sisters from the non-canonical churches, and their leaders in the first place, will have courage to perform sincere penance.

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At the same time the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has not changed its view of its present canonical status, approved in the Statute of the ROC by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on January 28, 2009. We believe that reconsideration of the canonical status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not beneficial for the ecclesial life. We remind our fold that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a part of the Russian Orthodox Church with rights of wide autonomy, self-governed in its rule, as it is stated in the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church. Through the Russian Orthodox Church it is unified with the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is through the fullness of the remains in the unity with the Universal Orthodoxy. The present status of our Church is the best possible for it to perform its salutary mission in the modern Ukrainian state – to sanctify the people of God, making them citizens of heavens.
The ancient Kyivan Metropolis is a successor of the great spiritual tradition of the Kyivan Rus, whose heritage reunited today the brother Slavonic nations. Being aware of our historical responsibility for the fate of this common heritage, we strive that the unity of our Church advanced, that the holy Kyivan land was not a center of discord, but the place of unity and sanctification, as it was at the time of the princes and as it is peculiar to the very soul of the Ukrainian nation.

The purpose of our dialogue with non-canonical church groupings is not a desire to get canonically separated from the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the striving to re-establish the church unity. The dialogue is not the justification of the schism or a concession to those who insists on it today, but the form of testimony of the blessed fullness of the ecclesial life of the canonical orthodoxy. The holy fathers’ commandment calls us to love a sinner and to hate a sin. Therefore we think it our task to testify, on the one hand, our sincere and unfeigned love to those who had withdrawn from us, and on the other hand – to bring to their notice the harmfulness and hopelessness of the non-canonical way of establishment of the one Local Orthodox Church they have chosen.

There is another thing we have to realize: while the tragically division between the orthodox Christians persists in Ukraine, the orthodox mission in the Ukrainian society won’t be fully successful. The wound of the schism weakens the Ukrainian Orthodoxy and becomes temptation for the outer ones, discrediting our Church in the eyes of the society.

The Church of Christ lives by the law of the fullness of love – the law which commands us to forgive, to extend mercy and pray for the penitence of the sinners. The aim of our dialogue with the non-canonical structures is the blessed change of minds and lives of those who remains temporarily, as we believe, in the schism. Beginning the dialogue with the non-canonical communities, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church inherits the love of Christ, manifested in the parable of the prodigal son and in the words of the Savior about the good pastor, who leaves ninety-nine sheep for the sake of one sheep’s salvation (See Luke 15: 4). And in the heavens there is more joy for the one converted sinner, than for the ninety-nine righteous. We do not seek to win or seek the superiority over our brothers, but their return to the salutary and blissful Church womb. Addressing the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, we ask you to raise prayers every day for the returning to the Church of those who had secede from it, so that we might praise the Lord with one mouth and one heart.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the God and father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!

1 Journal of the session of the Holy Synod № 45 of September 9, 2009

2 Decision of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, June 24-29, 2008 “On matters of internal life and external activities of Russian Orthodox Church”

3 From the speech of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia at the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra, July 30, 2009

4 Letter-Response of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the address of the president of Ukraine V.A.Yushchenko on the issue of the dialogue between the orthodox people in Ukraine and removing anathema from Ivan Mazepa.

22.09.2009. № 6284 (copy) // Archive of the Administrative Office of the Kyiv Metropolis

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