UPTsKP BISHOPS OFFICIALLY DECLARE TERMINATION OF DIALOGUE WITH UAPTs
The hierarchs of the Kiev patriarchate, who assembled on 27 July for the Holy Synod in Kiev, declared at the official level the termination of the dialogue regarding unification with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church [UAPTs]. The clergymen of the UPTsKP laid all the blame for the disruption of negotiations on the UAPTs. This is stated in the decisions of the UPTsKP Holy Synod (journal entry No. 26).
Expressing thanks to the ecumenical patriarch and Orthodox bishops from the diaspora, who observed the course of the dialogue between both churches, the bishops of the Kiev patriarchate noted that the dialogue with the UAPTs has been disrupted now for the fifth time in the last 20 years and "that in reality the UAPTs episcopate does not desire unity and has done everything possible so that it will not occur."
Participants in the Holy Synod also note that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate arose by means of a unification in June 1992 at a joint council of the UAPTs under the omophorion of Patriarch Mstislav and the UPTs under the omophorion of Metropolitan (now Patriarch) Filaret. "Therefore it is the only real historical and juridical heir of both of these churches," the UPTsKP declares.
"The church that at the present time bears the name 'Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church' is a new formation that arose under the influence of foreign anti-Ukrainian forces in 1992-1993 by means of the unauthorized separation from the UPTs of the Kiev patriarchate by several bishops and a portion of the clergy and laity. The current episcopate of the UAPTs (with the exception of one bishop) also comprises former bishops (3) and priests (the rest) of the UPTsKP, which quit the Kiev patriarchate.
"The current UAPTs has fewer than 600 genuinely active parishes, concentrated primarily in Galicia, and according to data of sociological surveys has the support of less than 1.5% of the population of Ukraine.
"These facts, as well as the consistent disruption by the leadership of the UAPTs of all five attempts to overcome the existing division, testify to the futility and fruitlessness of any further attempts at conducting dialogue with the bishops of the UAPTs. Therefore we recognize the dialogue concerning unification with the UAPTs to be over," the hierarchs of the Kiev patriarchate note. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 July 2015)
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