UPTsMP PUSHES BELIEVERS TO WRITE PROTESTS TO BARTHOLOMEW AGAINST AUTOCEPHALY
Ecclesiastical leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPTsMP) is asking believers to send letters to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with requests not to grant a tomos concerning the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
This was learned by UkrInform from its own sources.
Dioceses of the UPTsMP received tens of thousands of forms of a letter to the ecumenical patriarch, which are to be filled out in accordance with a model provided. It is suggested that believers send to the patriarch a request "not to legalize schism" and express a protest against the creation of a united local [church--?] on a foundation of "schismatic groupings of the UPTsKP and UAPTs."
A single diocese received 20,000 blanks, which are supposed to be filled out during the weekend.
In effect, by this means the leadership of the UPTsMP wants to disrupt the granting of a tomos.
Along with the form provided, believers are receiving a memo trying to persuade them that the granting of a tomos to the UPTsKP and UAPTs is a violation of their constitutional rights.
According to information of UkrInform's sources, in Zaporozhe diocese priests have begun filling out the forms in obedience to the hierarchy, while in Kamenets-Podolsk and partially in Khmelnitsky dioceses, they have refused to fill them out.
As UkrInform has reported, on 17 April Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that he had sent an appeal to the ecumenical patriarch requesting the grant of a tomos concerning the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He expressed the hope that the next session of the Constantinople synod will adopt a positive decision and it will be made by the 1030th anniversary celebration of the baptism of Rus-Ukraine, which will be marked in July.
On 18 April, the head of state officially received from hierarchs of the UPTsKP and UAPTs an appeal to dispatch to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a request for granting to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a tomos concerning autocephaly, with the signatures of all bishops who supported this decision.
On 19 April the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution of support of the appeal of the Ukrainian president to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew concerning creation of a united local Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 April 2018)
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