"A STEP TOWARD OVERCOMING SCHISM": FILARET ASKS RPTs FOR FORGIVENESS
The RPTs Bishops' Council stated the readiness of the leader of the self-proclaimed "Kiev patriarchate" (UPTsKP), Filaret Denisenko, to put an end to the church schism in Ukraine that has lasted more than a quarter century, but Filaret himself on Friday put forward a number of demands and gave assurances that he never will return to the bosom of the Moscow patriarchate.
A resolution of the Bishops' Council, published on Thursday, quoted excerpts from a letter by Denisenko where he stated a request for restoration of prayer and eucharistic communion with Christians who constitute the Ukrainian church schism and for a repeal of "all decisions, including disciplinary penalties and excommunications." "I ask forgiveness for everything whereby I have sinned—in word, deed, and all my feelings—and I also sincerely forgive everybody from my heart," the council quotes an excerpt from his letter.
The council considered this letter a "step toward overcoming schism" in Ukraine and it created a special commission for negotiations with the Kiev patriarchate. It includes bishops and priests from both the RPTs and the UPTsKP.
"After a bitter 25 years of strife, violence, mutual hostility, resentment, and disorders that have arisen in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society as the result of schism, there finally appears the possibility of setting forth on the road to restoration of unity. . . . A decisive renunciation of violence and seizure of church buildings, renunciation of mutual accusations and reproaches, and mutual forgiveness of old grievances toward one another—these are the healing means of self-sacrifice and love for Christ by which only it is possible to restore unity of the canonical church in Ukraine," the council's determination states.
At the present time in Ukraine there operate several churches of the Orthodox rite: the UPTsMP, recognized by all local Orthodox churches of the world, and also the UPTs of the Kiev patriarchate (UPTsKP), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAPTs), and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGKTs).
In 1992, Metropolitan Filaret (Denisenko) demanded autocephaly for the UPTs—the status of a local church presupposing its administrative independence. When he did not get consent to this, he, despite a vow to preserve church unity in Ukraine, created and legally registered the so-called Kiev patriarchate. In 1997 the RPTs excommunicated Filaret and pronounced an anathema.
Doubts about authenticity
At the same time, doubts about the authenticity of Filaret's letter were provoked among experts. Political scientist Vitaly Leibin thinks that "it would not be bad to trust in the authenticity" of the letter from the leader of the UPTsKP. Church historian Vladislav Petrushko expressed fears that certain political forces may use Filaret's person in their games and he welcomed the RPTs decision to create a commission for negotiations with the UPTsKP. "One may expect something good from this situation. It is good that our church will not make a hasty decision and will study the situation before giving Filaret an answer," Petrushko is confident.
The experts' doubts were also confirmed by a report of the press secretary of the UPTsKP, Archbishop Evstraty Zorya, on Facebook. The representative of the schismatics neither denied nor confirmed the authenticity of Filaret's letter, although he emphasized that "the only dialogue that the patriarch and the UPTsKP want and are ready to conduct with the RPTs is a dialogue about the recognition by Moscow of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church." "There can be no talk about some repentance before the RPTs or much less a return to membership within it," Zorya assured.
However the RPTs is confident that it is dealing with an authentic source. "We are talking about a really existing letter, which I held in my hands, with the signature of the former metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Filaret," Nikolai Balashov, the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, dispersing all suspicions.
In the end, the complete text of Filaret's letter was published by Zorya. It is dated 16 November, and it contains the signature of the leader of the UPTsKP.
"Wishing to put an end to divisions and strife among Orthodox Christians and to restore eucharistic and prayer communion, as befits the one holy catholic and apostolic church, for the sake of achieving the peace commanded by God among fellow believing Orthodox Christians and reconciliation among peoples, I appeal to you with a call to make the appropriate decisions by which the existing contradiction will be ended. To wit, to regard as past all decisions causing the aforementioned hindrance, including disciplinary penalties and excommunications," the letter to Patriarch Kirill and the episcopate of the RPTs says.
"In past years, much grief and strife have overshadowed mutual relations among Orthodox believers in our countries. . . . and I, as your brother and fellow minister, ask forgiveness for everything whereby I have sinned in word, deed, and all my feelings, and I also sincerely forgive everybody from my heart," Filaret concluded.
Who was first to decide to reconcile?
Archbishop Evstraty emphasized that the letter was written at the request of the Moscow patriarchate. This was denied by the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (OVTs) of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion.
"This was not our initiative, despite those statements that now are being made in Kiev. It was the initiative of representatives of the letter's author himself. They approached us, at first through their representatives in America and then directly. We met with them and they brought this letter and the letter was delivered to His Holiness the patriarch, and then it was read at the Bishops' Council," Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion told journalists.
Now at the press conference on Friday, Filaret presented his version of the events. "The initiative for reconciliation came from the Moscow patriarchate, though it was not directly from Moscow to Kiev but through New York, through the metropolitan of the foreign Russian church Ilarion," he stated, referring to the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York Ilarion.
At a press conference in Kiev on Friday, Filaret declared that reconciliation between the RPTs and the Kiev patriarchate has not been achieved, inasmuch as the Bishops' Council of the RPTs misinterpreted his appeal. In his version, the issue was the resolution of the question of autocephaly of the Ukrainian church and not about a return to membership in the Moscow patriarchate, and it was for the sake of providing complete independence (autocephaly) of the Ukrainian church that he appealed to the RPTs with a suggestion of reconciliation.
"I will never return"
"The Ukrainian church (Kiev patriarchate—ed.) will never return to the Moscow patriarchate, because we have our own state," Filaret said at a press conference on Friday.
In the event of Moscow's refusal, the Kiev patriarchate, he affirmed, will continue dialogue on autocephaly with the patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew.
In September, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, addressing the Supreme Soviet, once again called attention to "the very great seriousness" of the intentions of the Ukrainian government relative to the creation of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church. In his address, Poroshenko also appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew, pointing to the "Ukrainian leadership's firm political resolution to solve this problem."
At the same time, the RPTs and the UPTsMP have frequently emphasized that the decision on autocephaly will be made only by the mother church, the Russian Orthodox Church.
Filaret affirmed that he does not intend to leave the position of head of the Kiev patriarchate, even if this would assist dialogue about autocephaly. Moreover, he supported the draft law of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet according to which religious organizations with a center in "an aggressor country" will be able to appoint metropolitans and bishops only with the consent of the authorities.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate called Filaret's statement "attempts to stay the course." "I regret. The lie, justifications, attempt to stay the course, etc. Glimmers of church consciousness are overshadowed by worldly wisdom. But we were ready; we extended our hand; even if they spit on this hand, we did it, as Christians. You can't sneak into heaven by force," a representative of the UPTsMP, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, wrote on Facebook.
The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate refused to comment on Filaret's press conference. "We will not throw firewood on this bonfire," the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, told RIA Novosti. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 December 2017)
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