WAR SHOWED WHICH CHURCH
IS UKRAINIAN AND
WHICH ONLY PRETENDS TO BE UKRAINIAN—PRIMATE OF P.Ts.U.
Not a single one of the
Orthodox
churches received independence without state support. The
Ukrainian church also
was no exception. The primate of the PTsU [Orthodox Church of
Ukraine],
Epifany, explained this in an interview with Mirror of the Week.
"If one turns to history,
then it
is known that all churches that received autocephaly in the past
hundred years
had great support from the state in this process," the primate
of the PTsU
said. "Therefore our case is not at all special nor new. In
general, we
are now talking about a very long process that simply came to
its logical
conclusion during President Poroshenko's term. Ukrainian
presidents Leonid
Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma often declared that Ukraine needs its
own local
church. In 2008, under President Yushchenko, it seemed that such
a church would
soon be created, but not everything turned out so well. The
question was not
decided. Petro Poroshenko approached this topic sufficiently
seriously and,
having the gift of diplomacy and conviction, he was able to
bring everyone
together and to conduct effective negotiations with the
ecumenical patriarch.
And, since we find ourselves in a state of war, then it is
obviously important
that Ukraine have spiritual security."
"The war actually showed
who is who
in Ukraine. Which church is really Ukrainian and which is such
in name
only," Metropolitan Epifany is sure. "Therefore in the last five
years it was the UPTs of the Kiev Patriarchate that very many
believing
parishioners joined, and now it is the recognized local Orthodox
Church of
Ukraine. This was necessary for a country at war.
"The Russian government
understands
the role of the church very well. For example, when Putin was
asked what is the
guarantee of the security of the Russian state, he responded:
the nuclear
shield and the church. But when the Ukrainian government tried
to protect itself
spiritually, then this same Russia said that the Ukrainian state
is interfering
in the affairs of the church. But then what happens in Russia
itself? There an
independent church does not at all exist as such. Structurally,
the Russian
church is a state department for affairs of religion, which can
do anything,
including destabilizing actions on the territory of Ukraine,
through the
patriarchate of Moscow. If our government facilitated the
unification of
Orthodox believers of Ukraine, then this does not mean that it
interfered in
the affairs of the church. These are entirely different things:
interference in
the affairs of the church and helping to assure the spiritual
security of the
country," the PTsU primate concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 24
September
2019)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.