PATRIARCH
KIRILL
HOPES FOR OVERCOMING CHURCH SCHISM IN UKRAINE
Patriarch
of
Moscow and all-Rus Kirill declared at a meeting with Patriarch
of Romania
Daniel that he hopes for the overcoming of the schism in
Ukraine.
In
the course of
a meeting in his residence in the St. Daniel's monastery, the
religious situation
in Ukraine was discussed, particularly the question of healing
the schism.
"I
hope
that by God's mercy at some time all these divisions can be
overcome. And I was
pleased with the evidence that the Ukrainian episcopate wishes
to overcome
these divisions. They have love in their hearts for those who
are separated
and, of course, they suffer along with everybody from these
divisions,"
the patriarch said, whose words were quoted on Monday on the
website of the
Moscow patriarchate.
The
primate of
the Russian Orthodox Church also expressed thanks to all local
Orthodox
churches and the primate of the Romanian church personally for
support of the
canonical church in Ukraine.
The
Bishops'
Council of the RPTs earlier adopted a resolution in which it
cited the request
of the head of the self-proclaimed Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
the Kiev
Patriarchate (UPTsKP), Filaret, for the restoration of prayer
and eucharistic
communion with Christians who constitute the Ukrainian church
schism. The
council considered this letter "a step toward overcoming schism"
in
Ukraine and it created a special commission for negotiations
with the Kiev
patriarchate.
At
a press
conference last Friday, Filaret reported that he sent to the
Bishops' Council
of the RPTs a suggestion for reconciliation for the sake of
creating an
autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church and that he will never
repent for
having chosen the path of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox
church. He also
stated that the UPTsKP never will return to the Moscow
patriarchate. At the
same time, he said the Kiev patriarchate is ready to enter a
dialogue with the
RPTs within the framework of the commission that was created
only if the
question of the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church will be
discussed.
At
the present
time, several churches of the Orthodox rite are active in
Ukraine: the UPTsMP,
which is recognized by all local Orthodox churches of the world,
and also the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate, the
Ukrainian Autocephalous
Orthodox Church (UAPTs), and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic
Church.
In
1992
Metropolitan Filaret Denisenko demanded autocephaly for the
UPTs, the status of
a local church that presupposed its administrative independence.
When he did
not get consent for this he, despite having given an oath to
maintain church
unity in Ukraine, created and legally registered the so-called
Kiev
patriarchate. In 1997 the RPTs excommunicated Filaret from the
church and
issued an anathema. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 December 2017)
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