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Ukrainian Orthodox churches talk merger

ON EVE OF UNIFICATION OF UPTsKP AND UAPTs, UPTsMP PROPOSES TO RESTORE DIALOGUE

Religiia v Ukraine, 5 June 2015

 

With the blessing of the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate [UPTsMP], Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Onufrey, and at the invitation of the leadership of the UAPTs, on 4 June 2015 a delegation of the UPTs consisting of Bishop of Borodiansk Varsonofey, assistant of the Kiev metropolitanate, and the deputy chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, attended the local sobor of the UAPTs in the capacity of observers. The sobor is being held in Kiev in the premises of the Ukrainian House, Religiia v Ukraine reports, with reference to the website of the UPTs.

 

In his speech, Vladyka Varsonofey, on instructions from the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox church, said in particular:

 

"The founder of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ, in his high priestly prayer asked God the Father that 'all may be one' (Jn. 17.20). At the present time, it is upon us that the responsibility lies for the fate of Christ's church in Ukraine. We all want unity, but each of us has his own vision of the means to achieve it.

 

"As is known, the late memorable Metropolitan Mefody was a convinced supporter of the restoration of unity among Orthodox Christians in Ukraine specifically on the basis of canon law of the Orthodox Church. We consider that today it is necessary to listen to his lifelong desire.

 

"Therefore, on the instructions of the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox church, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Onufrey, I am delivering to you the suggestion for the restoration of dialogue among our churches. We propose continuing to meet with one another without paying attention to attempts to divide us or to the informational propaganda whose goal is to make children of the same parents enemies, and to recall that we are children of the one God and of one motherland—Ukraine."

 

Bishop Varsonofey also expressed confidence that unity can come only when questions that divide will be discussed in an ecclesiastical, and not a political, spirit. "The UPTs bishop noted with pleasure that there is not on the part of the UAPTs the aggressive attitude toward our church that has been observed on the part of others," the UPTs website notes. Therefore "we consider that an ecclesiastical spirit and a fraternal and gracious attitude toward one another may be the evangelical rock on which a firm and unshakeable building of a united church of Christ in Ukraine can be erected," bishop Varsonofey emphasized.

 

We recall that yesterday the UAPTs elected as its head Metropolitan Makary, who has proclaimed a course toward unification with the UPTsKP. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 June 2015)


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