Archbishop Mytrofan of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav : “The aim of the Dialogue is Restoration of the Church Unity”

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Due to the misinterpretations that have emerged recently, at the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr the working group for preparation of the dialogue with the UOC-KP representatives presents a commentary on the events that have taken place for all those concerned with the given subject.

On October 2 at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra the meeting of the working groups of our Church and the so-called UOC-KP took place, dedicated to the issue of beginning the interconfessional dialogue. The working group of the UOC for preparation of the possible dialogue was created at the session of the Holy Synod of September 9, 2009, and was headed by His Eminence Archbishop Mytrofan of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav, in compliance with the decision of the Holy Synod.
During the meeting of the working groups the parties discussed the possibility of establishment of the official dialogue between the UOC and the “UOC-KP”, as well as the principles upon which this dialogue is to be based. On our part it was mentioned that the necessary condition for the beginning of the dialogue is the refusal from the seizure of churches and departure from the rhetoric of enmity towards each other.

Establishment of our working group stems from the awareness of the need of overcoming church divisions in Ukraine. The Synod of our Church declared readiness for the constructive dialogue to the ‘hierarchs’ of the UOC-KP, responding their Address of 14.12.2007. The actions of the hierarchy of the UOC were approved by the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church that took place in Moscow presided over by the late Patriarch, His Holiness 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..(1)

The idea of the renewal of 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”.(2)

Meeting of the working groups is the first step towards establishment of the possible dialogue. It refers not to the beginning of the dialogue itself, but to its preparation, to which testifies the very name of the commissioned group of the UOC: “Working group for Preparation of the Dialogue with the UOC-KP Representatives”.

This dialogue should have begun long before. But several factors prevented the Church from starting it, the most decisive of which was the factor of political pressure. The dialogue is one of the basic instruments of the external ecclesial activity of the Church. But it cannot be initiated under political pressure. From the point of view of political logic, the sense of the dialogue between the UOC and the UOC-KP lies in the formal unification and obtainment of the canonical status, beneficial for the state. From the stance of the ecclesial logic, the sense of the dialogue is obtainment of the ecclesiastical unity.

The politicians often try to narrow down the Church to a social function, viewing it through the prism of sociology and making judgments about the Church proceeding not from its real nature and tasks, but from the sociological criteria of the “social utility”. But the Church of Christ cannot and should not be a vehicle for achievement of any political objectives, including the positive ones. Therefore, blessing its faithful to rebuild the national and political unity of our country, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had always witnessed to the society that its mission cannot amount to the socially beneficial activity. The mission of the Church cannot be of a partitive nature. The Church recognizes the import of national unity, but the unity which it creates itself is the unity of the higher order. We are called to the unity of God and Man. And it is the blessed unity of God and Man’s natures is the objective that defines the priorities of the church life.

It is highly important for our Church that all our actions were of ecclesiastical and canonical nature. One has to be guided by the principle of the Church’s benefit and not the one of the political expediency.

The dialogue can be and should be beneficial first of all for the Church and its unity. But for that end it is important that conducting it the Church kept faithful to the orthodox ecclesiology and the canonical tradition. Healing of the split is one of the primary tasks of the primate and hierarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And our Church will do all its best to overcome the ecclesiastical division, and the orthodox people of Ukraine obtained possibility of prayerful and Eucharistic communion. However, trying to regain those who separated from our Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will expend efforts on strengthening of the common church unity at the same time.

The preparation to the dialogue with the UOC-KP and conducting the dialogue with the UAOC in no case imply that our Church reviews its canonical position or questions the canonical and spiritual unity that connects us to the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church. On the contrary, performing preparation of the dialogue with the UOC-KP and activating the dialogue with the UAOC we do not act in defiance, but in obedience to the will of the Plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church, being guided by the stance of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the common church decisions on the schism healing in Ukraine, and in particular, by the decision of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 2008, which approved of the ‘efforts expended by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for overcoming of the split by means of the dialogue with those who seceded from communion with it”.(3)

Having taken the lead of the Church in the tragic state of division, throughout the years of his ministry as the UOC Primate His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr have consistently strengthened the church unity and conciliarity. All the labours of the Primate had always aimed to reinforce the unity of our Church, on the one hand, and to express fatherly love to those who had seceded, on the other hand, and to show that the UOC is the true Church of our people and an organic part of our society. It is in this vein that our dialogue with the UAOC and the UOC-KP representatives is devised and conducted. The dialogue is not to question either our church unity, or that principal canonical position of our Church regarding the schism, which we have taken up for many years. Conducting the dialogue with the brothers who seceded from unity, we follow the well-known ascetic guideline: “hate the sin, love the sinner”.

The dialogue is necessary and possible. But in order it should be successful it is important that both parties act openly and with responsibility. The hierarchy of the UOC, being aware of the responsibility for the salvation of those remaining outside the salutary fold of the Church, had made a number of possible steps towards non-canonical groups in a pastoral way. One of such steps was the decision to start the preparation of the dialogue between the UOC and the UOC-KP. Before the possible dialogue begins we expect the responsible attitude of the UOC-KP to the problem of the property conflicts between the communities of the UOC and the UOC-KP, as well as their denunciation of the extreme political bias of the UOC-KP itself. The dialogue presupposes responsibility of the parties. Therefore, preceding its beginning, at the meeting our working group raised the issue of the need of refusal from the practice of church seizure and other confrontational actions of the UOC-KP towards the UOC. We hope that the UOC-KP authorities will do their best in order that the conflict situations were resolved in accordance with the effective legislation and historical justice. Otherwise the dialogue will prove to be not only unjustified from the point of view of the interests of the UOC, but will also be discredited in the eyes of the church people.

The dialogue objective is not the change of the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We do not consider the meaning of this factor in absolute terms. It is not the formal factor that is of importance for us, but the actualization of ecclesial unity. The status is not the basic moment of the church life. The Church is unified not by one or another canonical status, but Christ Resurrected, Who communes us to unity with God in the Sacrament of Eucharist. As one of the modern orthodox theologians, Metropolitan John of Pergamon noted, the Church makes a certain Community among many other communities in the society. “Therefore there is always danger of confusion of sociology and ecclesiology”, he writes. (4) This danger of sociological view of the Church should be opposed by the church orthodox concept of the Church as a Eucharistic community. The Church is not a mere historical object or a product of history. The Church, which has to sanctify the world, is to be free from it.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has to do its best to unite the Ukrainian society. But in order it could do that, it has to continue being itself, i.e. the Eucharistic assembly, uniting people not on ideological basis, but by the way of being – through communion to Christ Resurrected in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

The fact of meeting of the two working groups has been highly estimated in the Ukrainian society. It is of especially high importance in our time of political dissociation, when everyone divides the Church unites. Many social leaders of sound judgment stood out in favor of the possible beginning of the dialogue between our Church and the “Kyivan Patriarchate”. On that subject His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr spoke in his letter to Patriarch Kirill, asking for his blessing, prayers and his further support of the matter of healing of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical schism, informing His Holiness on the results of the meeting held. (5)

On behalf of the working group for preparation of the dialogue,

+ Mytrofan,
Archbishop of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav,
Administrator of the UOC

References:

1) 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”

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

3) Decision of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, June 24-29, 2008 «On the Church unity».

4) Zizioulas, John, Church’s Identity, by: Зизиулас Иоанн, митрополит. Идентичность Церкви // Зизиулас Иоанн, митрополит. Церковь и Евхаристия. Сборник статей по православной эклессиологии / пер. с греч. иером. Леонтия (Козлова) – Богородице-Сергиева Пустынь, 2009. С. 21.

5) Letter of His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine to His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, of 08.10.2009, №1375.

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